Invitation from the Director
What Makes a Lloyd Scholar?
Are you a writer, painter, dancer, musician? Do you believe that the arts add immeasurable value to your life? You may be majoring in any subject—from biology to business, from art history to computer science—but you refuse to give up your guitar or paintbrushes or poetry journal. You might study for a psychology exam by day, then attend a UMS performance in the evening. Your life was changed by reading Sylvia Plath or watching Moonlight or listening to Hamilton.
A Lloyd Scholar feels pretty much the same way.
Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts (LSWA) is a living-learning community focused on writing and the arts. Regardless of your academic major, we want you to hold onto and nurture your creative side; in fact, we believe that staying creative while in college will help you in your academic and professional pursuits. In LSWA you will reside with students who have similar passions, you will take writing and arts classes together, and you will participate in creative workshops, activities, and clubs. We offer writing classes that fulfill your first-year writing requirement and are taught by experienced instructors from the Sweetland Center for Writing. Our arts classes are also varied—from drawing and painting to photography and videography to our Art in Public Spaces class, where students create big puppets and take part in the annual Ann Arbor FestiFools parade.
But some of you may still wonder: What is the value of belonging to a writing and arts community? As Meghan Tiff asks in her essay “An Introverted Writer’s Lament,” “[S]ince when does making art require participation in any community, beyond the intense participation that the art itself is undertaking?”
We believe that belonging to our community will support, inspire, challenge, and deepen you while at the U-M. At LSWA, you can take part in the film club or become an editor of our arts and literary journal. You can attend a play with your hall mates and your instructor, then talk about it in class the next day. You might submit or even perform your poetry for our annual Caldwell Poetry Prize. And if you love it here, you can apply to stay on in LSWA after your first year or return as a leader in the program.
Most important, while you are here, you will belong to an inclusive community that values every student. LSWA is strengthened by the diverse experiences, backgrounds, perspectives, and aesthetic sensibilities of all our students. That means we rely on each Lloyd Scholar to participate actively, create vehemently, argue respectfully, socialize joyfully, and give intensely. Once you are a Lloyd Scholar, you are the program.
Carol Tell (2004-2022 Director)
Scott Beal (2022-2023 Interim Director)
