UTC’s common reading program has a new brand and a fresh invitation for the entire campus to read the same book. Read2Achieve, formerly known as the First Year Reading Experience or FYRE, will bring first year students together by reading the same book during the summer months. Faculty and staff will also be encouraged to read the book and initiate book clubs during spring semester 2015.
“The original name of the program essentially compartmentalized the program and focused it towards incoming first year students,” said Dr. Gretchen Potts, Chair, Read2Achieve Committee and an avid reader since she was five-years-old. “We appointed a subcommittee to research other universities. After a month of research, they came back with several suggestions on how we can improve our program. The first was to change the name to fit the spirit of the program. We bounced around several ideas and settled on Read2Achieve. We believe this embodies the mission of the campus as well as the goal of the program.”
This year, the Read2Achieve committee received nearly 50 online nominations from students, faculty and staff. After narrowing the books to a list of twenty, the committee reviewed the list and narrowed it to five books. The entire committee read all five books in the last six weeks of fall semester.
“The book selected was The Circle by Dave Eggers,” Potts said. “This novel follows Mae as she begins her job at a large internet conglomerate. The lines between personal and professional blur as social media networking being to influence all of Mae’s decision-making. Imagine how your life might be different if technology left you little privacy. Should one be allowed to keep anything private? Will video cameras actually promote honesty?”
I’ve already ordered the book and I’m so excited to read it!