Common Reading Suggestions
The mission of the Purdue University Common Reading program is to provide a common, academic-based first-year experience for all new students (freshmen and transfers) – an experience that sets high academic expectations for students from the onset of their undergraduate careers.

The goals associated with this mission are:
  • Connect students to their faculty/instructors
  • Connect students to their peers
  • Foster involvement in campus activities by linking programs and events to the common reading
  • Promote meaningful learning by encouraging intra- and inter-disciplinary dialog
  • Enhance student success by:
    • emphasizing reading as an intellectual skill central to student achievement
    • promoting learning with and from others
    • setting higher expectations for student success
    • modeling academic behaviors
  • Foster first-year student and teaching-focused discussions among/between faculty
  • Foster greater and intentional connection between the University and the community (public libraries, cultural events, etc.).

Given this mission and goals, suggested books will be reviewed with the following criteria in mind. Books associated with Purdue's Common Reading Program will:
  • Be academically oriented
  • Promote reading, critical thinking, information literacy, and discussion skills
  • Bring students, faculty, and staff together around a common intellectual activity
  • Focus on a theme or themes generated from the selected work
  • Incorporate a range of activities around the selected work (including but not limited to a convocation)
  • Be accessible, available widely, available electronically, and available in multiple formats so as to accommodate disabilities, etc.
  • Be affordable (purchase cost of the book; speakers' fees associated with the author or experts on the text, etc.)

With these aspects in mind, please provide answers to the questions below regarding your suggestion for the 2014-2015 Purdue University Common Reading book. Please only suggest one book per form; if you wish to suggest more than one book (which is fine), please submit a separate form for each book.

Thank you for your time and suggestion!