Why Thomas Williams?

In my writing, I have posed the question of why the UNH English Department, in the late 1950s, decided to hire its first creative writers, novelists, etc. In particular, what was the argument made to shift Thomas Williams from an instructor to an assistant professor?

Crowley helps me to answer this question:

Creative writing programs experienced phenomenal growth during the middle decades of the century, and so creative writing teachers' talk about the writing process and workshop pedagogy circulated in the discourse of English departments during that time as well (Myers, Wilbers). (195-96)