One book One city
for this year’s Utah State Connections students.
Connections students participate every year in the Common Literature Experience. It works much like a book club and is run through the Academic Resource Center.
Noelle Call, Connections coordinator and director of the Academic Resource Center, said a different book is selected each year and presented across campus and Cache Valley to invite young and old to read, discuss and attend a speech from a key player in the book.
“By having that common [literature] experience, it means that immediately you have something in common with someone you just met. By inviting the community to join us in the common experience, it gets the community connected to the university. And that was the original idea,” Call said.
What started out as a way to induct new students to USU, the Common Literature Experience has become a way to involve not only Connections students, but to include members of the community as well. Many city organizations were presented with the book, including the Chamber of Commerce and the mayor, as well as high school English departments, libraries and merchants throughout the valley. Seniors centers and individual book clubs were also urged to join in the experience.
Call said this concept is a current trend among universities. The book chosen this year was “When the Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka. This was a strong candidate because of its ties to Utah and strong themes related to current events.
Dr. Christie Fox, this year’s literature selection committee chair at USU, said she hopes the program will become more widespread into what she referred to as a “one book, one city program”.
Cal said the Common Literature Experience has become a core part to the Connections program at USU. Much of course curriculum circulates around the book.
Students are required to read the book and write a 10-page response by the first day of class in an effort to introduce them to the academic world they are entering. Discussions held throughout the week allow students to relate to the book. One student compared the Japanese-American characters in the book to new students going to college, saying “They were put out of their comfort zone, and so are we.”
Call said feedback from instructors was very positive.
“[Instructors] just bubbled with how great their class discussions were afterwards,” Call said. “Discussions were rich, students just had a lot to say and it really caused them to think.”
Call explained the program purpose as two-fold.
First is a common experience with new acquaintances. The second half involves the Connections students.
“With the Connections students, we add one more piece. By requiring not only that they read the book, but also write a paper that they bring to class, it exposes them to what an academic assignment looks like in college. So it’s their very first college assignment,” Call said.
The program began in 2003, when honors students enrolled in Connections served as a pilot. On the first day, they were each given a book of poetry by renowned poet May Swenson. The book was to be used for discussions throughout the week. The next year, a motivational book was given to all Connections students and the main character of the book came to speak. By 2005, the program had grown, been deemed a successful venture, and has become an annual event.
To take a step further towards the community, being more involved includes plans to add a community member to the literature selection committee. This committee already consists of representatives from the honors, English and student services departments.
Every year, the committee starts meeting in the fall to discuss possible book candidates for the following year. A request for nominations is opened up to the campus community starting in November and is narrowed down through volunteer reader reports and committee meetings until only a few choices remain.
The book is chosen and presented by February to prominent organizations and individuals such as Stan Albrecht, president of USU, and Doug Thompson, mayor of Logan City.
“It takes a lot of work and a lot of people,” Call said of the process.
Call said a number of factors go into selecting a book, including size, themes, writing style, how it relates to current events and what was chosen in past years. She said the committee is really looking for a book that is enjoyable to read.
“We’re trying to keep in mind a student in the summer. We want the student to pick it up and say ‘This isn’t bad, I can do this,'” Call said.
Fox said this year’s book just stood out against the others because of its ties to Utah and themes of security in relation to freedom. They felt like students could really connect to the novel as well.
“It really just rose to the top immediately,” Fox said.
As for the future of the program, Call says that she hopes it will grow. The library on campus will extend the experience into the rest of the year with displays, lectures and readings in conjunction with the opening of the new library. Call also said the theater arts department is expressing an interest in contributing with performances.
“I think there are more opportunities,” Call said about including more people in the experience. “It just depends on the book and the themes that it lends itself to.”
For more information about the program or nominating a book, you may contact Noelle at noelle.call@usu.edu.
-bmnelson@cc.usu.edu