To fellow students, Student Government Association, and members of the Student Fees Committee—

I am a graduate student, graduate teaching assistant, and non-fiction editor of Mikrokosmos literary journal. With the risk of important funding being cut and without adequate graduate student representation on SGA, it is important that you hear my voice. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend the public forums both Feb. 28 and March 7. I point out this inability to attend, as the irony is not lost on me.

First of all, I will not be able to attend Feb. 28 because of obligations to a job that I need in order to supplement my stipend as a GTA. Secondly, I will be absent from public forum next week as I will be at a national writing conference (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) promoting our literary journal and graduate creative writing program. Basically, I will not be able to confront SGA’s proposed budget cuts because of my commitment to this school and its student body.

Mikroskosmos asked for $3, 710, a mere .04% of the overall budget. It doesn’t take much to keep us afloat. It doesn’t take much to create a high quality journal. It doesn’t take much to create something that draws students from all over the country to attend WSU (I, myself, hailing from Michigan).

Mikrokosmos is set to release its 64^th issue by the end of this year to a national audience. We will be featuring work from alumni of the creative writing and art programs, current students, and faculty. This Thursday we will be hosting an open mic open to not only the WSU community, but all of Wichita. Our interests and reach are clearly widespread.

Not only that, but we are the oldest literary journal in Kansas—our first issue was printed in 1958. Eliminating funding for Mikrokosmos is essentially eliminating a piece of Wichita State University’s history.