Newswise — One thing is common to students and faculty on a college campus, they all read books " a lot of them. And many of them enjoy the experience " so much that book clubs are now becoming a popular supplement to the academic experience.
Largely because of the success of the "Radical Reading Group" at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., two professors proposed and team-taught the course "Marx and Marxism" last fall " with many of the same students from the reading group enrolled in the class.
At Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, a book club from nearby Cedar Falls was integrated into two May Term human relations classes " providing additional cross-generational perspective.
A professor at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. built his "Sex and Love in Modern Jewish Stories" class this past spring around the community reading and discussion group participating in a related five-book series.
"Contemporary American Fiction" is a class designed to gives students an idea of what participating in a book club might be like at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.
Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Ala. provides "The Interim Book Club" as an outlet to students, faculty, and staff during the school's sometimes grueling interim January term.
And Loyola University New Orleans' on-campus MBA book club meets once a week to discuss the evolving world of business ethics and interpersonal relationships.
Lebanon Valley's "Radical Reading Group" is an outgrowth of "Students Acting for Global Awareness" (SAGA), which has planned teach-ins on the Iraq War, the Presidential election, and diversity. Last fall, Dr. Jeffrey Robbins, assistant professor of religion and philosophy; and Dr. John Hinshaw, associate professor of history and director of the American Studies Program, discussed creating a reading group to provide depth and historical perspective to SAGA's political activism.
"It was our belief that meaningful change and political action on campus and within communities requires both a commitment to action and a willingness to learn and reflect critically on the effectiveness of one's activity and the social, cultural, and political dynamics in a place that might be resistant to change," said Robbins. "But we did not want the group simply to be SAGA members talking amongst ourselves. So we opened the reading group up to any interested faculty, students, staff, and community members."
He reports that 25-30 people " mostly students, with three or four faculty, two staff members, and about five people from the community " were attending by the year's end. Because of how popular the extremely open and non-structured discussions were among students, Robbins and Hinshaw decided to co-teach their "Marx and Marxism" course this past fall. That's led to discussion about incorporating the group into Lebanon Valley's annual year-long colloquium.
"We have talked about encouraging the entire college " faculty, staff, and students " to read a book together that will help to generate interest in the colloquium and create a conversation across disciplines and departments" said Robbins.
Dr. Cheryl Budlong, chair of the education department at Wartburg, belongs to a Monday evening women's book club, which meets in nearby Cedar Falls. She thought integrating her book club experience with her human relations classes would prove enlightening to students. It was.
During the month, her students and fellow book club members met in a large residence hall lounge, rather than a classroom, to stimulate more discussion. They read Affluenza by John DeGraaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor, which is about America's overabundances and excesses. She created four discussion groups, with two book club members and eight students per group. The book club women were all the age of the students' parents, or older.
"The thing that they (the students) liked the best was the inter-generational discussion. They were 18 to 22, and the people in book club were 45 to 80," said Budlong, who plans to integrate the book club into her classes again next May term, and also present news of its success to her professional organizations.
The Blough-Weis Library at Susquehanna hosted "Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature " Identity and Imagination," a six-part series which examined five contemporary and classic books related to the "Sex and Love in Modern Jewish Stories" course by Dr. Laurence Roth " associate professor of English and Jewish Studies, and coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program. He reports that the group averaged a dozen people " including students, faculty, and members of the community.
While Roth was facilitator for most of the discussions, students from his class also served in that capacity when the full group broke into groups of two or three apiece.
"As a result, the discussions sometimes reflected quite divergent takes on the meanings and forms of love. That's the kind of inter-generational discussion that a reading series or reading club at a university can offer " one that brings young and old, campus and community into dialogue with each other," said Roth, who believes there will be future efforts to conduct similar reading group programs through the library.
Sewanee English Professor Thomas "Tam" Carlson conducts book club-like discussions with students in his "Contemporary American Fiction" class each week from the living room of his house. The books " which students have some say in choosing " range from seriously ambitious fiction by such authors as Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison; to more popular fare by authors like Kent Haruf and Charles Frazer.
Birmingham-Southern's "Interim Book Club" is largely voluntary, although students can get required cultural and intellectual events' academic credit for participating. Members choose one of six books from a predetermined list, and then are asked to attend discussions with a faculty moderator. The books are provided free by the student affairs office for the first 15 students in each group. "During the interim term, students are required to take one intensive course, and so the school has come up with various offerings to keep them sane on campus," said Doug Welle, director of interim and contract learning at Birmingham-Southern, who coordinates the club. "The criteria for choosing the books was up to the participating faculty members. It had to be a recent book of particular relevance, a classic, or a personal favorite. We had six groups participating " ranging from five to 15 people per book."
The books chosen for Loyola's MBA book club often reflect business ethics and interpersonal relationships, also integrating spirituality and diversity into the world of business. The Rev. Jim Caime, S.J., University Ministry associate chaplain, stresses that because "spirituality and business are not mutually exclusive," the MBA students and others meet to discuss ways to incorporate spirituality with ethics.
Each member draws parallels from their reading to their own lives. Caime's experience comes from four years as a finance analyst with Martin Marietta " now Lockheed Martin.
At each session, book club members rotate facilitation. The person facilitating will send an e-mail to the rest of the group a few days before the meeting with a comment or question on the chapter, giving them something to think about.
Most recently, the group read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven R. Covey " the multi-million-copy seller which maintains that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness.
Reading and sharing the weekly meeting has helped Jan Moppert, coordinator of graduate programs in Loyola's College of Business, as a manager and colleague. "We are all so busy, but this program makes me read " and more importantly, it's about fellowship with substance," she says. "I get to experience multiple levels in these people, and that's so valuable."
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