As UNLV moves into its second cycle for the Common Read program, we are excited to announce that we’ve established a selection committee and identified our reading for the 2024-25 academic year. The Common Read program, a recognized High-Impact Practice (HIP) for First-Year Experience (FYE) programs nationwide, plays a pivotal role in fostering a sense of community and belongingness. It provides a shared text that not only sparks campus conversations but also enhances classroom engagement and co-curricular activities.
The selection committee, comprised of First-Year Seminar instructors and faculty from across campus, reviewed a list of book nominations and national recommendations, for which we solicited additional feedback from campus colleagues. The list was narrowed from eighteen to nine, and then to three books. After careful consideration and discussion, we selected our final Common Read recommendations.
The top-ranking choice and the new Common Read for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years is The Moth Presents: A Point of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go, the latest in the Moth series. This collection of short stories focuses on the beauty in our lives related to relationships, loving ourselves, and connecting together to share our stories.
The newly selected read supports, in a student-centered approach, an overarching theme of storytelling, celebrating the beauty of life, and building connections – the foundation from which our first-year students can and will be successful at UNLV. The opportunities to align this theme and book selection with curricular and co-curricular opportunities within the FYE at UNLV are limitless and build upon the roadmap of Common Read connections built in the first two-year cycle of this new program. These opportunities include spring admissions events for new students, the FYE Summer Connect Series, New Student Orientation, Rebel Ready Week, fall curricular (FYS, SYS, and other courses) uses, and co-curricular student activities. The FYE Team will work closely with faculty and staff in the coming months to share updates on partnership and collaboration opportunities.
In addition to the Common Read, we are excited to share a resource that can be used to work with and support the success of new students. The free Open Educational Resource (OER), Connections are Everything, can be an incredible success guide and tool for students. It offers a “how to” on building purposeful relationships in college and how those can positively impact their overall experience. Information about and access to the guide is being shared with students starting at New Student Orientation throughout the summer. The FYE Team will host two virtual sessions this summer related to the Connections are Everything success guide, as part of the FYE Summer Connect Series, to introduce and talk about the guide with students. This fall, faculty and staff will hold opportunities for discussion and utilization of the guide throughout the semester.
Please reach out to Jeff Orgera, associate vice provost for Student Success, or Karen Violanti, executive director for First-Year Success Programs, with any questions or ideas related to the Common Read program. We appreciate the support of our campus community and look forward to hearing about the creative and impactful ways that you incorporate The Moth Presents: A Point of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go in your classes, co-curricular student activities, and retention, progression, and completion programming. Thank you for your partnership!
