University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

MEDIA RELEASE

Incoming Freshmen to Read ‘Nickel and Dimed’
as Part of CSUN’s Common Reading Program

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Feb. 5, 2008) — After a 10-month search for a book that will engage Cal State Northridge freshmen as successfully as did "The Things They Carried," the Freshman Common Reading Program’s inaugural selection, university officials announced a winner for the 2008–09 academic year.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s bestselling "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" emerged as the winning choice after the program’s campuswide Selection Committee considered some 30 titles submitted by students, faculty and staff.

The book had stiff competition. Runners-up included "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie; "Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China," by John Pomfret; "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini; and "Waiting for the Barbarians," by J. M. Coetzee.

When the "One Campus, One Book" common reading program debuted on campus in fall 2007, freshman were joined by many across campus and across the disciplines in reading and discussing Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried," a collection of compelling stories about the narrator’s Vietnam war experiences.

"O’Brien’s book was great intellectual fun for everybody," said program director Cheryl Spector, also a professor of English and director of CSUN’s Office of Academic First Year Experiences. "We put up an exhibit of freshman art inspired by the book last fall, and faculty developed many other amazingly creative assignments to engage their students. I’m hoping we’ll be even more successful with our second book."

Described as "unforgettable" and "full of riveting grit" by Newsweek, Ehrenreich’s narrative follows her from state to state and job to job as waitress, hotel maid, Wal-Mart salesperson, and nursing home aide. Along the way, she discovers "a thousand desperate stratagems for survival" in a world where one job often is not enough.

Selection criteria took the form of four basic questions: Does the book 1) engage freshman and draw them into reading and reflection, 2) encour¬age freshmen to grow intellectually, 3) encourage thought in a variety of courses and contexts, and 4) value diverse cultural perspectives and address contemporary social issues?

"Now that we’ve decided on the 2008–09 selection, it’s time to start thinking about 2009–10," said Spector, adding that next year’s selection committee will convene in summer 2008.

A complete list of the 2008–09 suggested titles is available on the program Web site: www.csun.edu/afye/CommonRead.html.