Inclusion of credit for Creative Writing courses as requirements for English major

This petition serves to implore you to please consider including Creative Writing courses offered in the English department here at Washington and Lee University as requirements for students wishing to major in English.

As it stands, it is simply unfair to students who wish to concentrate in this area within the major and not be able to have the credit fulfill a requirement for the major. Learning to write well is an important feature of a Washington and Lee education and a special emphasis in the English Department, where all courses involve instruction in writing. While students at Washington and Lee cannot major in writing, it would be appreciated if they could receive credit towards the major for all Creative Writing courses taken and passed at this university.

Some basic research has been undertaken regarding Washington and Lee's peer institutions and it was found that following schools not only offer credit for Creative Writing courses, but also count that credit as requirements for the major:

Vassar College, Smith College, Grinnell College, Wesleyan University, Haverford College, Davidson College, Middlebury College, Bowdoin College, Carleton College
Amherst College

In fact, Middlebury College offers "over twenty different courses a year on various aspects of creative writing: fiction, poetry, playwrighting, screenwriting, and nonfiction." And all courses & credit are counted towards the English major.

Further, "Creative writing is a valued part of the curriculum at Bowdoin."

If these highly selective, well-respected colleges accept credit for the major, why does Washington and Lee not? We, the undersigned, implore you to please reconsider your stand in this regard and to overturn the decision reached by your committee.