Overview
The Carolina Summer Reading Program is designed to introduce you to the intellectual life of Carolina. Expected of all new undergraduate students (first year and transfer), it involves reading an assigned book over the summer, and participating in a two-hour discussion with select faculty and staff members. The goals of the program are to enhance students' participation in the intellectual life of the campus through stimulating discussion and critical thinking around a current topic, to enhance a sense of community between students, faculty and staff, and to provide a common experience for incoming students. Some find they enjoy sharing the reading with members of their family during the summer.
The reading for Summer 2004 will be announced later this spring.
On Monday, August 25th, from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., all students are expected to attend small group discussions led by selected faculty and staff. This is an opportunity for you to connect with members of Carolina's learning community and to share a common experience with your new peers. Students can learn more about preparing for these discussions by referring to sections of this website.
Anyone interested in finding out about previous book selections, may refer to the Other First Year Initiatives section of this website.
The Book for Summer 2003
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is Barbara Ehrenreich's account of what it is like to make a living on the salary of a low paid or "unskilled" worker. Taking jobs as a waitress, cleaning woman, nursing home assistant and Wal-Mart employee in three different cities across the nation, Ehrenreich struggled to make ends meet. Her account of these jobs, the generous and gutsy people she works with and their desperate struggles for survival on minimum wage is direct, vivid, and engaging.
By bringing the issues of our economy, the income gap, and our large low paying service industries to readers through her portraits of the working poor, Ehrenreich draws a topic often depicted in charts and statistics into compelling narratives. In 221 pages she describes the conditions, humiliations, and challenges of these jobs and the lives they barely sustain, and despite her moral outrage at low wages and high rents, exhausting and ever-changing shifts, and workplace cultures that require docility, her book is filled with moments of humor, spirit, and dignity.
Purchasing Information: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co., © 2001, pp. 221) may be purchased at the Bull's Head Bookshop (Student Stores Building) for $9.75 plus tax (a 25% discount). You can order a copy from the Student Store's website with any major credit card. This book will also be available at early C-TOPS and TSOP sessions.
The Author
 |
Related Resources
 |
Related Events |
Other UNC-Chapel Hill First Year Initiatives
First Year Residential Experience
First Year Seminars
2002 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2001 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2000 Carolina Summer Reading Program
1999 Carolina Summer Reading Program
Resources for Book Discussion Leaders
Guidelines for Discussion Leaders
General Pointers for Leading Book Discussions
The Carolina Summer Reading Program developed from recommendations made by the 1997 Chancellor's Task Force on Intellectual Climate to improve the first-year student orientation experience. For questions/comments, send email to read@unc.edu.
© 2003 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All rights reserved.
Website designed and maintained by the UNC-Chapel Hill ITS Center for Instructional Technology.
Last revised: February 10, 2004.