November 17, 2005
One book for all incoming freshmen: Mountains Beyond Mountains
Students who enter the UW next fall will have at least one thing in common — they will all have read the same book. Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains has been chosen as the book that all incoming freshmen will be given and expected to read before fall classes begin.
The book was chosen this week by a committee led by Christine Ingebritsen, acting dean of undergraduate education. Subtitled The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, the book tells the true story of a Harvard Medical School professor’s efforts to bring the tools of modern medicine to people around the world.
“Farmer is somebody who becomes passionate and engaged and also seeks to change the world around him,” Ingebritsen said of the book, “so it relates to what we hope for in our students — a transformation from students into scholars and to participants in global society.”
It was Ingebritsen’s idea to choose a common book for incoming UW students. She was at a conference of the American Council on Education, she said, when she heard a colleague from Butler University talking about their experiences with a common book. “I thought it was an interesting way to build community,” she said, “and it also resonated with discussions I’ve had with our president, who has endorsed the idea of a common experience for incoming students.”
Ingebritsen assembled a committee that included representation from ASUW, Housing and Food Services, First Year Programs, the Writing Center, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the President’s Office, the Office of Undergraduate Education, Freshman Interest Groups and University Book Store. The group first decided on a set of criteria they wanted the book they chose to meet. They wanted the book to be:
- exciting
- intellectually engaging
- a sample of good writing
- able to stimulate discussion
- passionate and inclusive
- capable of an unfolding impact — something you could continue to look at through the year from different angles.
- evocative of place — appropriate to the UW and to Seattle
Mountains Beyond Mountains qualified in all these ways, Ingebritsen said. “We find this is something that speaks to the values of the campus and to two leaders — the president and the provost — who are passionate about global education and have come to the campus to move us in a direction centered around those ideas.”
She said the book is also particularly appropriate because the University is currently engaged in building an undergraduate program in global health.
Mountains Beyond Mountains was chosen from four finalists the committee arrived at. The other three were Bold Spirit, the story of a woman and her daughter who walked from Spokane to New York in an attempt to win money to save the family farm; Kite Runner, a novel about a young Afghanistanian who comes of age in the last peaceful days of the monarchy, before the revolution and the coming of the Russians; and America is in the Heart, the autobiography of well known Filipino poet Carlos Bulosan, who arrived in the U.S. as an immigrant and suffered years of hardship.
“All these books had great potential and we could have used them,” Ingebritsen said. “But Kidder’s book was the one the entire committee was comfortable with.”
Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains’ subject, works closely with Seattle’s Gates Foundation. He will likely be invited to campus sometime next year, Ingebritsen said. Author Kidder may also be on the guest list.
As for the ways the book will be used, that is the committee’s next task. So far, members have thrown out a list of ideas that range from an essay contest to discussion groups in the dorms to a study abroad program related to Farmer’s work. Committee members will winnow that down and make more specific plans in the months to come. Ingebritsen said they intend to move beyond students and involve University staff in discussion groups. And there may be activities that reach beyond the campus into the community.
The book itself will probably be given to students at orientation next summer; students who don’t attend orientation will receive it in the mail.
The UW is far from the first institution to use the idea of a common book. Other universities using the program have sometimes gotten in trouble over the books chosen. There was quite a brouhaha, for example, when the University of North Carolina chose Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations. But Ingebritsen said the University hopes to avoid such controversy by not requiring the book to be read for credit. And she’s confident Mountains Beyond Mountains is a good choice.
“I’ve read it and it is very well written,” she said. “And Paul Farmer is a very interesting person to follow. “He continues to divide his life between Harvard and other parts of the world where he’s working to cure epidemics. He’s also a person who shows how if you’re passionate about something, you can make a difference. That idealism, that spirit it brings is very optimistic at a time when I think we need optimism in our lives.”
