This year's common reading project book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, was selected to give Ohio University students a perspective of the economic and living conditions that exist in the Appalachian area surrounding the school.
Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a first-person account of the author's experiences as she left her life as a journalist in Key West, Fla., and took a run-of-the-mill low-paid job for a month. Her goal was to earn enough money to cover living expenses and the next month's rent bill. Ehrenreich, who has a Ph.D. in biology, repeated her experiment in three different U.S. cities, scraping by as a waitress, a house cleaner and a Wal-Mart associate.
Members of this year's incoming freshman class received a copy of the book at their Precollege sessions and were required to read the book before they moved into their residence halls. In the two previous years of the common reading project, students bought the required book, Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, and were simply strongly encouraged to read it, said Joe Burke, director of residence life.
New students participated in discussions of Nickel and Dimed on Sunday. Commuter students discussed the book at their orientation on Sept. 1. About 35 OU faculty and staff members were scheduled to help lead the discussions, but resident assistants led most of the discussions with their residents.
By leading discussions, RAs send a message to their residents that they are more than just people who enforce rules or unlock doors ... They are also educators
Burke said.
A major part of the discussion was dedicated to the inaccuracy of stereotypes of many groups, not only the impoverished. Ehrenreich's writing exposes some of the myths about poor people then debunks those stereotypes Burke said.
OU's location, in Appalachia
where some of these situations we're talking about are right around
influenced Burke to select Nickel and Dimed, he said.
More than 27 percent of the people in Athens County lived in poverty in 2000; and 54 percent of households had an annual income of less than $30,000 in 1999 according to an Ohio Department of Development profile of the county. In contrast, 12 percent of incoming OU students estimated their family's total gross income to be $30,000 or less in 1998, according to Institutional Research. The plurality of incoming students, 34 percent, estimated their family to have an annual income of $80,000 or more in 2003.
[Nickel and Dimed] opens their eyes to conditions around them they might not know about
Burke said of the typical OU student. It raises some interesting and good points about the economic situation in the country at this time.
Kristen Clifford, a senior RA on the third floor of Jefferson Hall, said she gained a different perspective of the nation's working class by reading Nickel and Dimed. I thought it was a real eye opener to the 'dark side' of the working-class jobs. I knew that the pay wasn't always great for some of those jobs
but I really never understood the physical and emotional toll that they can take on the workers too.
The book also can help students contemplate what it means to be an ethical employer or employee, Burke said. He said he hopes new students ponder the question, What does it mean to be an ethical member of this community? referring to the OU campus and Athens.
Ehrenreich, who will speak at OU in May as part of the Kennedy Lecture Series, also shows the importance of being an active participant in life. Ehrenreich in this book had the option of doing this in a paper and pencil analysis ... or she could live the experience
and she chose to live the experience
Burke said. He said he hopes her initiative will encourage students to become involved at OU. You need to live the experience to become engaged in the life of campus
the life of the community.
These topics of discussion are designed to get students talking, but are open ended, Burke said. The book is a jumping-off point. Residential learning communities at OU and UC115, a class to ease freshmen's transitions to college, will also use the book for coursework this year.
