New reading initiative features Holocaust memoir

The start of a new academic year brings new faces, new goals, and new academic initiatives. One such initiative, The Common Read Initiative, began this fall as part of the First Year Success Program (FYSP).”We decided we were going to do the common read this year because it’s one of the initiatives for first year that universities across the nation are doing,” explained Conchita Hickey, Executive Director of Programs for Academic Support and Enrichment (PASE), which oversees FYSP. The common read seeks to engage the entire incoming freshman class in a common learning experience. All freshmen are expected to read the same book and discuss it in their University Seminar class (soon to be called Learning in a Global Context). Ideally, students receive the book upon registering in the summer and read it by the start of the academic year, but FYSP decided to begin the common read initiative this fall.”This is the immediate program,” said Hickey, “and we’re doing it without a lot of the bells and whistles that come with a fully-planned common reading event, but it’s looking very much like one.”The book chosen as this year’s common read is the holocaust memoir All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein. According to Hickey, the idea for the book came from Food for Thought, a local non-profit organization that promotes literacy and draws attention to the role adequate nutrition plays in scholastic achievement. Food For Thought decided to use All But My Life in their city-wide book club, One City, One Book, and invited the author to speak in Laredo. Hickey cited the scheduling of this talk as a motivating factor in starting TAMIU’s common read program immediately. “They were able to get Gerda Klein to come speak, and they asked us if we would like to help sponsor her travel over here, and if we would then be interested in having her come speak with us,” said Hickey. “At that time, we were already considering the common read program, and since these things were happening simultaneously, we said, ‘Absolutely.'”First released in 1957, Klein’s book chronicles her family’s ordeal in a Polish Nazi death camp and is considered a classic of Holocaust literature. One reviewer for Library Journal called it “as sensitive and ‘disturbing’ a story as The Diary of Ann Frank.”Because of the limited availability of authors who can visit the university, Hickey asked the committee of faculty and administrators who will decide on future common reads to consider only contemporary literature.Hickey added, “It also has to be international and multidisciplinary. Those points are not going to be negotiated. The appropriate length and other details, those are for the committee to discuss.”According to Hickey, University Seminar instructors comprised the committee that decided on the Holocaust as a theme for the common read pilot program. While the theme may change to another historical or social issue in the future, Hickey advocates using the Holocaust now for its social relevance:”We want an international topic of consequence. Something for students to meditate about and to think a little bit about.”Hickey also hopes to implement an essay contest similar to that executed by the common read initiative at West Texas A&M University.During their first year experience, West Texas students were invited to write an essay reflecting upon their common read, Night, by Elie Wiesel, also a Holocaust survivor. Students who wrote the twenty best essays were offered an all-expense paid trip to central Europe to visit the sites described in the book, according to a news release from TAMIU’s Office of Public Relations, Marketing, and Information Services. “West Texas did a beautiful thing. They [contest winners] went to Poland and put together a statement about resistance,” said Hickey. “One of Wiesel’s themes is that we can not stand idly by.”The students then presented their statement to faculty and administrators at West Texas. Everyone can learn from their statements, according to Hickey.”Finishing your degree is resistance. Showing kindness to a stranger, educating yourself-these are all ways to not stand idly by,” she said.NEXT ISSUE: KLEIN VISITS TAMIU