Boise State University First Year Reading Program

Members

• The First Year Reading Program will be supported through the work of students, faculty and staff appointed to the committee; members will provide a wide representation of programs and departments.

• The committee will be facilitated by co-chairs appointed by the Vice President for Student Affairs and Provost. Currently the Director for New Student and Family Programs, Brian MacDonald is the designee for Student Affairs and a faculty member Nick Miller is the designee for Academic Affairs. The co-chairs are responsible for appointing members and maintaining the membership of the committee.

• Consistent participation on the committee is critical for the program’s success. If participation from a particular part of campus is not regular, the co-chairs may consider appointing another member to the committee.

Purpose

• The steering committee establishes policies, practices and programming associated with the First Year Reading Program.

• The steering committee is the direct liaison with the President and works with the President to identify the most appropriate theme for book selection each year.

• The steering committee will review the top 10 list put forward by the Selection Committee and will recommend books from this list for consideration by the President.

In consultation with the First Year Read Steering Committee, President Kustra may select the theme for the following year's book around June 1 of the year preceding the read. Establishing a theme is not an official part of the process as of the Fall of 2009, but may become one as the program continues to develop.

In order to better organize and screen book nominations, the following criteria shall be applied to the process. Nominations that do not include or utilize these criteria or exclude information necessary for screening may be eliminated from the final list that is forwarded to the selection committee for review.

• Book Information: the nomination should include book title, author, copyright date, publisher, page count.

• Page count: the nominated book length should be manageable for students and not be more than 300 pages in length.

• Genre: books may be nominated from a range of genres

• Connection to theme: each nomination must draw direct ties between the nominated book and the theme of selected for the year.

• Purpose: the nomination should address the question, “Why do you want new students to read this book?”

• Synopsis: the nomination should include a synopsis of the book.

• Connection to relevant topics: nominations should address how the book could be tied to a variety of elements relating to the theme, e.g., local/regional history or events, other classes being offered or disciplines, possible programs that could be done or are already being implemented.

• The nomination need not be more than 500 words (but can be).

Advertising

• The committee will begin to advertise the process by which book selection will be done for the next year at the end of September of the preceding year. However, discretion should be exercised, as the process for nomination and implementation of programming of the current year will overlap. It is important to promote activities of the current read and not overshadow the current book with the selection process for the next year.

• The month of September will be used to advertise the selection process for the following year.

• October shall be known as book nomination month and nominations will be due on October 31. Review of Nominations

• Once the nomination process is closed, the selection committee will review all submissions.

• The committee must make recommendations of the “top 10” list to the steering committee no later than the second week of December.

• The steering committee will review the nominations and create a process by which all the books are read.

• During the month of January, the steering committee will meet to discuss the recommended books and create a list of recommendations for the President.

• Once recommendations are determined, a short synopsis of the book (under 500 words) will be created by one or more members of the steering committee. Information included in the recommendation to the President should include 1) how the book addresses the yearly theme, 2) how it can assist in student growth, and 3) some ways that the book can be used throughout the year in order to advance student development.

• The steering committee shall make recommendations to the President no later than February 1.

• Nominations will only be accepted from currently enrolled Boise State students.

• Nominations can be made by individual students or groups of students, e.g., classes, student organizations, university housing living-learning community, sports team, etc.