Reinstate Kim Bridgford as WCU Poetry Center Director

Kim Bridgford is a poet of rare gifts & an inspiring leader. She built brilliantly on the foundations laid by conference founders Dana Gioia & Mike Peich. This summary dismissal reflects neither the due process that is every faculty member's right, nor the sense of shared community that characterizes the poetry conference and which should characterize the broader WCU community.

I totally support Kim Bridgford as director of the West Chester University Poetry Conference. Her dedication, organization, and community-building activities have been exemplary.

It seems clear from the online support and feedback from previous conferences that Kim was doing an excellent job as Poetry Center Director. To remove her from post for a 'personnel issue' without actually firing her suggests limited justification for this decision. Reinstate Kim and reverse the decision to cancel the 2015 conference.

Kim Bridgford has been doing a magnificent job as Director of the WCU Poetry Center. Those of us who have been supporting the center and its conference for many years are stunned by her sudden dismissal. I only hope that this petition will show the admiration and respect that we all feel toward Kim and her many achievements as Director.

I support the reinstatement of Kim Bridgford as WCU Poetry Center Director.

I strongly support Dr. Bridgford's reinstatement.

This is outrageous! Kim is the best!

Kim is inspiring and exemplary leader. I can't imagine a better person to direct the West Chester poetry conference.

I support this petition with all my heart. Kim Bridgford is a person of integrity and great gifts as a poet and a leader who was heading a happy, healthy organization, built on strong foundations and blooming further under her leadership. She was fired--or "reassigned"--without notice or due process. This is disgraceful. I am a poet, teacher and writer who has attended West Chester six times over the years since 2005. I would have come more often if I had had the funds, since this was the only way I could meet with poets from all over the world, to discuss poetry and issues of craft and scholarship, and to improve my work and deepen my knowledge based on those discussions, panels and workshops. I sincerely hope that West Chester University will pay heed to the vast community of scholars and poets who are the lifeblood of the West Chester Poetry Conference, and who object strongly to her dismissal.

Please reinstate Kim Bridgford.

Kim Bridgford has been an inspiration to me since I met her 5 years ago.

It's a wonderful conference

Kim has done a wonderful job as director. I would like to see her be given a chance to continue this work.

Dr. Kim Bridgford has a commitment to diversity that has brought the West Chester Poetry Conference into the 21st Century. I fully support this petition for her reinstatement.

Please reconsider this misguided decision

So many fine poets, scholars, students and other poetry lovers have been shocked and saddened by the summary termination of Kim Bridgford as Director of the West Chester Poetry Center & Conference. She has been an able administrator, an inspired and innovative leader, and a gracious, talented, and welcoming Conference host. Her removal is a terrible loss and a blow from which the Center & Conference may never recover. I hope this petition helps to correct a serious mistake, before it's too late.

Kim is an outstanding director of the Westchestor Conference. I can't imagine the conference without her calm, her knowledge of poetry and the "Kim-ness" so essential to Westchester's success.

I support this petition wholeheartedly. I was totally shocked to hear of the decision to remove Kim Bridgford as Director of the WCU Poetry Center and the Poetry Conference. I am not exaggerating when I say that hundreds of poets and scholars the world over are reeling in disbelief at this decision, which can only be described as hasty, misguided and, quite frankly, perplexing. Only a few days prior to the "reassignment", Kim had delighted us by announcing that former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser would be the 2015 conference keynote speaker. As a conference attendee in 2011, I can attest that the conference under Kim's exceptional leadership, was the highlight of my poetic life thus far. Every single aspect of the conference was handled with the utmost professionalism and organizational brilliance. I strongly urge the university to reinstate Dr. Bridgford as Director of the Poetry Center and the Poetry Conference as soon as possible.

Kim's firing seems a clear illustration of the old maxim, nullum actum bonum non punitur. Kim has done outstanding work, and deserves better. I fully support this petition.

As a poet and editor who has attended the West Chester University Poetry Conference for 12 years, I'm in awe of Kim Bridgford's abilities as Director. Like Dana Gioia and Mike Peich before her, she has consistently put together the best poetry conference in the U.S, while continuing to update its offerings in ways that are truly inspired.