Campus Reform: Gustavus Adolphus College

According to a news report just released,

A new study by the National Association of Scholars has found that 70 percent of the summer reading books assigned to incoming college freshmen in the U.S. show a liberal bias and are not academically challenging, setting off a storm of debate in educational circles.

I am curious how exactly the "Reading in Common" program at Gustavus matches up to the debacle being reported on about colleges across America.  Let us take a look at it.

The Reading In Common Program at Gustavus began in the 2000–2001 Academic Year.  Books in the Gustavus Reading In Common Program have included:

• 2010: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• 2009: Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
• 2008: Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China by John Pomfret
• 2007: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
• 2006: Honky by Dalton Conley
• 2005: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• 2004: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• 2003: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• 2002: The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill
• 2001: The Chosen by Chaim Potok
• 2000: The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

The first three goals and aims of the program are listed to be

• Encourage intellectual interaction among students in conjunction with faculty
• Welcome students to the academic life of Gustavus
• Facilitate a shared academic experience for all students

I am curious how any of the eleven books selected during the inaugral season of this project have actually offered substantive evidence of fufillment of these three goals.

It seems more the case that as the study reports; the selection of books focus heavily on pop culture and sports; and not core curriculum; and certainly were not intellectually challenging.

It probably comes as no surprise then that for a study done of colleges across America that

"Even where the books themselves may convey more complex social views, most of the books on the list fit neatly with the agenda of the campus left: anti-Western, anti-business, multicultural, environmentalist and alienated. The books do signal what lies ahead for students in many colleges: a four-year program of more of the same," the report concluded.

The study did not look at the alleged bias of the assigned books individually, according to NAS spokeswoman Ashley Thorne, who helped create the list. "We looked at what the books were about," she said, and then categorized the general subject as either liberal or conservative.

"Only 2 percent of the books were considered conservative," she said.

Compare that to a more substantive and informative list of reading opportunities that the President of the Leadership Institute has produced to help with the education and training of there students.  Titled "Read to Lead," the might say that Gustavus' program is about "reading to bleed" (a reference to bleeding heart leftism) and not about assigning books for students that are about "reading to lead."