What is IUP’s Common Freshman Reader?
The Common Freshman Reader is a book selected each year for incoming first-year students. The book is given free to students to read during the summer before they come to campus in the Fall. Why did IUP begin this program for its new students? The goals of the Common Freshman Reader are to enhance new students’ understanding of the academic climate, what it means to be a member of IUP’s learning community, their connection with faculty and fellow students, and their academic success. Through reading, discourse, and engagement with faculty and students, in and out of the classroom, first-year students will experience IUP as a university that encourages student participation and will recognize the educational value of their active involvement in the intellectual life of the campus.
