Poet Jim Ragan has been at the helm of USC College’s Master of Professional Writing Program for most of its 35 years.

Ragan became director of the nation’s first multidisciplinary master’s program in creative writing 10 years after the program launched in 1971.

The objects inside his comfortably cluttered office tell a story about how far the program has come.

Take the antique chair reserved for visitors. When the program began with 28 students and eight faculty members, the chair was in great shape.

With the program now numbering 180 students and a faculty of 30, the old chair is a bit worse for wear.

Ragan has simply covered the threadbare upholstery with a sheath of wine-red velvet. “It’s been with me since the day I started 25 years ago,” he said.

Near the chair, shelves are packed with plays, screenplays and books written by MPW students. In order to graduate, students must write a publishable thesis in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, television, screenwriting or playwriting.

Encased in glass are some of the students’ published works. So far, MPW students have published about 100 novels, 52 nonfiction and 20 poetry books. Their screenplays have been made into 20 films and received three Academy Award nominations. Forty plays have become professional productions.

On a wall, a framed poster shows one of the most recognizable successes. It depicts Jack Nicholson holding up a cute little dog.

Mark Andrus wrote the screenplay for “As Good as It Gets,” his MPW thesis. In 1998, he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best original screenplay and won a Writers Guild of America Award for the work. He went on to write the screenplays for “Life as a House” and “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood.”

Work from other former MPW students such as Sandra Tsing Loh, Ehrich Van Lowe and Charles Webb also are displayed.

Like the others, Kaytie Lee arrived with a passion for writing and a dream in her heart.

On this day, Lee walked into Ragan’s office cradling a large hardback book. It was her thesis, a 483-page novel titled “Traveling Into the Sun.”

“Now comes the hard part,” said Lee, 29, recipient of the 2004 Phi Kappa Phi Award. “Getting an agent and getting it published.”

The best part about the program, Lee said, was having access to the great writers who comprise the faculty. She adored Hubert Selby Jr., author of “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” who died in 2004.

A few others include Janet Fitch, who wrote “White Oleander”; Kenneth Turan, a film critic for the Los Angeles Times; biographer Noel Riley Fitch; author and essayist John Rechy; and humorist and playwright Shelley Berman.

“They help you to develop your voice,” Lee said. “This is a great place to grow and develop your craft.”

Ragan agreed.

“You can’t teach writing,” he said. “You can’t teach sensitivity. They have to arrive here with that already. What we’re here to do is teach sensibility, the ability to make sense through craft.”

Another item inside Ragan’s office highlights the program’s international acclaim. A poster-sized photograph shows former Czechoslovakian president Vaclav Havel wearing a dark red USC Professional Writing Program T-shirt.

The photo holds historical significance. That day in 1993, Havel had resigned from office to protest the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The photo, the first taken of Havel as a civilian, appeared on the front of major newspapers.

“I’ll never forget when [USC President] Steven Sample’s office called me and asked, ‘Did you give Vaclav Havel a MPW T-shirt?’ ” Ragan recalled. “When I answered, ‘Yes, why?’ he said, ‘Because he’s wearing it on the front of the New York Times.’ ”