The Common Read program, currently in the nomination process for fall 2012, is a chance for students to come to the University of Idaho and have at least one piece of knowledge in common, Rochelle Smith said.
Common Read is a program that requires all incoming freshmen to read the same book, which is then used for group discussion events during New Student Orientation. But the program needs to be reworked, said Smith, a member of the selection committee.
“The ways we tie into the curriculum, the ways that we do other things, and how the book we choose reflects on that,” Smith said.
Patricia Hart, a UI professor who has taught previous CORE classes for four years and an ISEM class this year, said the problem is the books were generally not broad enough in topic to fit into her classes.
“The question is how would the Common Read fit into a common theme,” Hart said.
If the students were all reading and discussing the book, they would have a great chance to connect a person with a textbook, she said.
Hart said with change from the yearlong CORE classes to the single semester ISEM classes, there is even less time to talk about a book outside the class focus.
Psychology and communications lecturer Elizabeth Sloan said she has heard from students that the book is rarely used in their classes.
“I think the majority of the students coming into the classrooms have not read the book, and so those who have read it feel like, ‘What’s the point if we all didn’t read it?'” Sloan said. “‘If five of us read it, it’s not really a common read.'”
Sloan said more students read the book when it was more incorporated in the curriculums of their classes.
“I feel like the rigor for that has kind of lost its focus,” Sloan said.
Bruce Pitman, UI dean of students, said the program started five years ago to give the incoming freshmen a common intellectual experience.
“Important social issues of the day, or a particular theme that we wanted to address during the course of the academic year,” Pitman said. “We chose to connect this program with new student orientation, and at that time, the Core Discovery classes.”
Pitman said the university leadership, to ensure the program is relevant, has asked a group of faculty and staff to generate some suggestions about how the program could be improved.
“That the Common Read be more directly connected to curricular offerings, so that when students come, they’ll perhaps be writing about the themes, or giving speeches about the themes,” Pitman said. “They’ll be asked in some of their other classes to have some critical conversations about the themes in the book.”
Hart said the nominated books are mostly identified by the faculty through lists of books other universities have used for their common read programs.
“I’m not sure you are connecting with students by talking to faculty,” Hart said. “Students should be able to say ‘this book changed my life.'”
Hart said books that were about issues directly affecting the students would also be more appealing.
Smith said the books should also be easy to read and engaging enough to keep reading in the summer between high school and college.
“That’s a really busy summer, when you know you are about to go away to college,” Smith said. “You’re buying sheets — you’re saying good bye to your family — you’re figuring out all these ways to live on your own.”
Smith said she would welcome emails from students about what books they think would be beneficial.
“I think that would be wonderful to have more student input,” Smith said.