Support our Department

Public universities are one of the great glories of American life. The number and quality of these institutions far exceed what is available in other developed countries, and make the democratic dream of higher education for all one day attainable. But such a goal is still a long way off. Today, a public university faces an untenable choice: either raise tuition, perhaps dramatically, to sustain increasing costs, or allow the quality of its faculty, its archive, its facilities, and its leadership to deteriorate.

There is only one way that both private and public universities have managed to sustain themselves without making the cost of education impossible for all but the very rich, and that is through the generosity of private donors. 

Unfortunately, private universities have benfited far more throughout their history from the largess of their alumni. The simple truth is that, for most of the last century, those who attended public institutions were subsidized in large part by state taxes, and neither students nor university administrators considered donations by alumni and our community a high priority.

All this has changed. The various departments of the University of Utah now depend on the kindness of strangers, and of course alumni, to help them meet even the most basic needs. The English Department serves a central mission at the university—it teaches students to read critically and write persuasively—but it must do so with ever-shrinking state support. Without private giving, that mission will inevitably fail.

Thank you.