Salt Lake City: Community Writing Center Closes Physical Space After 25 Years, Team Restarts as a Nonprofit
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Community Writing Center, formerly located in the downtown Salt Lake City Library at 210 E. 400 South in Salt Lake County, has closed its physical space after providing free and low-cost writing coaching, workshops and community programs to local residents for over 25 years, The City Journals reported on October 21.
The center has run its programs with the help of over 700 volunteers, and its annual anthology will now print its 25th edition; its programs include the Wasatch Iron Pen 24-hour event, Salt Lake Teens Write and Utah Freedom Writers. The closure followed budget cuts: the center lost its funding last fall after the state legislature passed HB 265 in 2025, cutting higher-education spending and requiring institutions to reallocate 10 percent of their educational programs. After May 29 of this year, the center was left without a permanent home base. Founding and final director Tif Rousculp said many community members wrote letters asking the college not to close it.
The team has since registered the center as an independent nonprofit, The Community Writing Center Inc, whose articles of incorporation were approved on April 29; it will be volunteer-run at first. Nearly 200 community members responded positively to a team survey, saying they would donate to help restart it. The center's online services will continue to be available to all Salt Lake residents, and an archive of its work, assembled over eight months, will go into the state archive system. (GSM, based on The City Journals reporting)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 盐湖城市中心图书馆主馆外景实景图，社区写作中心原设于该馆。图片：Streamline1989，Public domain，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Exterior of the Salt Lake City Public Library main branch, where the Community Writing Center was located. Photo: Streamline1989, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
