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Incoming freshmen will explore America's
role in the world and cruise the CWRU campus in two new activities
during Orientation 2002 August 18-25.
First-year students will be introduced
to the University's theme for the academic year, "America's Role
in the World," through a new common reading program that they
started as individuals this summer and will continue as a class
this fall.
The nearly 900 incoming freshmen each received
a copy of the approximately 200-page autobiography Hunger of
Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriquez, thanks to a grant
from the University's theme committee. The new undergraduates
were asked to read the critically acclaimed book-the story of
the author's social assimilation, his academic success as a multicultural
college student and his consequent feelings of alienation from
his immigrant family and culture-before they arrive on campus
this fall.
Rodriquez, a noted journalist and Mexican
American, will be at CWRU in September as the featured speaker
for Humanities Week.
"The common reading program adds an intellectual
flavor to orientation and begins a kind of discourse that can
continue throughout the academic year," said Mayo Bulloch, director
of Educational Enhancement Programs.
When the new undergraduates come together
in an all-class assembly for the Share the Vision program during
orientation, President-designate Edward Hundert will share his
reactions to the book. Students will then discuss their responses
in small groups.
"Though largely a personal memoir, Rodriquez's
story has meaning for all of us," Hundert wrote in a letter to
the first-year students. "In examining our theme of America's
Role in the World, we will use his story to examine who Americans
are and what it means to be a nation of immigrants."
Faculty and staff members interested in
leading small group discussions can contact Bulloch. A copy of
the book will be provided.
In "Cruising CWRU," which is funded by a
grant from the Provost's Office, new undergraduates for the first
time this year will choose among several activities that allow
them to experience the CWRU and greater-Cleveland communities
first hand.
Off campus they can canoe the upper Cuyahoga
River, work at a local Habitat for Humanity building site, take
a geology field trip to Mentor Headlands Beach State Park and
help children at the Glenville Recreation Center paint a 32-foot
mural, among other activities. On-campus experiences include creating
a radio program to air on WRUW-FM, CWRU's student radio station;
building an autonomous LEGO robot; participating in a Model UN
simulation of the Cuban Missile Crisis; and creating a short film
with the CWRU Film Society.
"Cruising CWRU supports the education through
experience recommendations of the President's Commission on Undergraduate
Education and Life," Bulloch said. "The activities will help new
students meet classmates with similar interests as well as introduce
them to campus and community activities."
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