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.
This year's reading is Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky.
On Monday, August 23, 2004, 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 to be added soon.
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 2004
"Can you do this? What kind of person are you, and what can you make yourself finish? Can you hang with the rest of us?"
Absolutely American explores the challenging environment of West Point by following an entering class of cadets through all four years of their college education. They are high achievers, among the best students in their high schools. This is a personal view of their struggles with the rigors of the regimen and their constant examination of their career choice -- all told through vignettes of everyday life at West Point. The featured cadets all emerge as unique personalities. We also see West Point as an institution in transition as it adapts to the values of contemporary U.S. society, all the while trying to maintain its core values and mission. The tragedy of September 11th and violent conflict worldwide affect the futures of these cadets in no uncertain terms, for they will be the officers expected to lead the fight. The paperback edition of the book, which includes an Epilogue that follows some of the cadets to the war in Iraq, emphasizes the reality of their commitment to serve. Author David Lipksy concluded that, despite the gravity of their mission, ". . . of all the young people I’d met, the West Point cadets -- although they are grand, epic complainers -- were the happiest (xiii)."
Equally motivated and high-achieving, our entering students also face a challenging college career at UNC-Chapel Hill. In asking entering Carolina students to read Absolutely American, we are inviting students to reflect on personal goals and expectations by considering student life at a much different institution. This book encourages students to think about duty as well -- duty to serve communities that prepare them for Carolina, duty to the State of North Carolina that so generously supports the University, and duty to a country that values freedom of speech, which makes it possible to freely explore ideas and issues such as found in the Carolina Summer Reading Program.
Purchasing Information: Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point (with a new epilogue) by David Lipsky (Vintage Books, 2004) will be available in paperback in early May 2004 at the Bull’s Head Bookshop in the UNC Student Stores for $10.47 (a 30% discount). The paperback version is the assigned reading since it will have an epilogue not found in the hardback version. However, hardback copies of the book are available now and may be purchased at the Bull’s Head for $17.50 (a 30% discount).
The book will also be available
at C-TOPS
and TSOP
sessions.
Related Resources
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Supplementary Resources |
Other UNC-Chapel Hill First Year Initiatives
First Year Seminars
2003 Carolina Summer Reading Program
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.
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Last revised: October 20, 2004.