When You Can Choose Any Book

Since 2001, Cornell has requested that all incoming freshmen read a particular book, which is then discussed during Orientation Week as part of the New Student Reading Project. Book selections have ranged from classics like The Great Gatsby (my year) and The Grapes of Wrath (this year) to the awful choice of the unreadable and overly specific Lincoln At Gettysburg last year.

When you ask thousands of people to read a common book, you should choose something that most people will find interesting, and also something that will lend itself easily to discussion. The reading project is one of those rare times, like Slope Day and convocation, when a lot of the Cornell community comes together for a common event.

Don't ruin it by making it all about politics!

(And I say this as a liberal Government major.)

When last year's student leaders chose a partisan political operative, David Plouffe, to speak at this past spring's convocation, I argued that "bringing in someone as highly political and partisan as Plouffe spoils what would otherwise be a rare opportunity to bring the Cornell community together."

Which brings me to today's Ithaca Journal article announcing that in the inaugural year of the freshman reading project over at Ithaca College, everyone is reading President Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father.

Again, like the choice of Plouffe, the choice of Obama's book interjects politics into an event which should really be about community cohesiveness and intellectual stimulation.

If last year's convocation committee had wanted to bring someone to speak about the promise of the future, or the rewards of hard work, there were many options besides Plouffe. If IC administrators had wanted to choose a book to develop ideas about race and identity, there were plenty of choices which would not have had the contemporary political baggage of Obama's book.

In both of these cases, the purpose of the event becomes hijacked by politics, and the opportunity for unity and high debate is diminished.

I asked in February that readers "imagine if five years ago the [convocation] committee had brought Karl Rove to speak, yet attempted to mollify a rabid student body by promising that Rove wouldn't focus solely on politics."

Similarly, imagine if John McCain had won last fall's election and IC had chosen Faith of My Fathers in order to discuss heroism and familial ties.

In both cases, I imagine there would be quite an uproar from liberal staff and students.

I fear that college administrators, seeking to grab students' interest by tying everything into contemporary politics, squander valuable opportunities for students to put aside individual political views and consider serious ideas.

(Ithaca Journal/Previous)