The Minnesota Review is in danger of shutting down, due to Carnegie Mellon’s intransigence regarding funding. It’s an age-old struggle between English departments squeezed for money, who want to shift funds to other seemingly more tangible benefits, and literary journals that are rarely self-supporting.
David Kaufer, the head of the English department, insists that The Minnesota Review should seek outside funding, but most literary journals operate on a budget funded by three roughly equal sources: revenue from sales/advertising, outside grants/funds, and university support. If you take away the last leg, most university-affiliated journals would collapse.
The Chronicle of Higher Education weighs in on the situation in a blog post, and the student newspaper offers a more extended take, including extensive quotes from all involved.
