Abstract
Despite the continued growth of common book reading programs on college and university campuses, little is known about the benefits of such programs on first-year students' development. Using a multi-institutional survey of undergraduates attending six large, public universities (n = 1,237), the present study examined relationships between first-year students' participation in common book reading programs and their self-reported development in academic skills and multicultural appreciation and competence. The results suggest that participation in such a program is significantly and positively associated with first-year students' self-reported development in academic skills and multicultural appreciation and competence, controlling for their participation in first-year seminar and learning communities, demographic characteristics, academic engagement, sense of belonging, faculty interactions, grade point average, and students' self-reported skills and competencies when they first arrived on campus. As colleges and universities continually expand their services to enrich students' experiences and nurture development, one program in particular—common reading experiences—has garnered increased attention by higher education practitioners (Ferguson, 2006; Laufgraben, 2006). At their core, common reading programs feature a shared text read by students, faculty, and/or staff in the campus community and play a central role in bridging divides on college campuses. For example, common reading programs can stretch across various academic disciplines; connect students with staff and faculty in a variety of fields; ease students' transition into college; help students form lasting bonds within their campus communities; and unite institutional efforts across academic and student affairs (Ferguson, 2006; Twiton, 2007). Despite the powerful potential for common book programs to unite campuses in a collective intellectual experience, little empirical research exists that demonstrates the benefit of these mutual intellectual experiences for college students' development, especially during their critical first year of study in higher education. The goal of the present research study was to examine whether participation in common book reading programs is associated with first-year college students' self-reported development in two primary areas: (a) academic skills and (b) multicultural appreciation and competence.