The Summer Reading Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was developed from recommendations made by the 1997 Chancellor's Task Force on Intellectual Climate to improve the first-year student orientation experience. Implemented in 1999, the program was designed to introduce students to the intellectual life of the university; all new undergraduate students (first year and transfer) are expected to participate. The program aims at enhancing students' critical thinking around a current topic, developing a sense of community among students, faculty, and staff, and providing a common experience for incoming students. Some of the books selected for the program have sparked controversy and resulted in extensive public and media attention. Michael Sells's Approaching the Qu'ran: the Early Revelations (summer 2002) and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (summer 2003) have drawn the most attention. The selection of Sells's book resulted in a lawsuit against the university, brought by the Family Policy Network. The following year, a group of UNC-Chapel Hill students calling themselves the Committee for a Better Carolina challenged the selection of Ehrenreich's book. The John William Pope Foundation supported the students by paying for a full-page ad in the Raleigh News and Observer calling the book a classic Marxist rant and a work of intellectual pornography with no redeeming characteristics.
From the guide to the Summer Reading Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1999-2003, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives.)
