They came in the August mail, just as soon-to-be freshmen were saying goodbye to friends who were leaving for other schools. Parceled in among pamphlets about meal plans and New Student Week activities, the packages sat heavily in mail stacks on kitchen counters. Inside was something different: a biography of Charles Darwin.
Six months later, Tech’s Ryan Auditorium was filled with students on Thursday with as many older members of the Evanston community as students. The audience listened to author and journalist David Quammen’s keynote lecture on his book, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, as part of this year’s “One Book, One Northwestern” program.
Designed to give incoming Northwestern students a common ground for discussion, the night’s talk nearly filled the auditorium to capacity. Before Thursday, however, many students had come to question its effectiveness. Packed events have been an exception to the rule since the inception of the project, which is why the program committee has begun efforts to make events more appealing to students.
The school-wide “One Book, One Northwestern” program has been running for three years. The goal is to create “a common conversation across campus,” according to Teresa Horton, “One Book, One Northwestern” committee chair.
Quammen’s book detailed Darwin’s life after the Caribbean voyage that would eventually inspire his theory of evolution and the hesitation that the scientist felt about publishing his theory. Talks by various speakers and a Blackboard discussion site were set up in conjunction with the project.
“We want to give [new] students a chance to start engaging with Northwestern,” Horton said.
But some students did not take up that chance.
“I had better things to do at the end of my summer,” Weinberg freshman Drew Wagner said. “The book itself seemed really dry.”
At the end of October, Horton announced on Blackboard that the discussion board had grown “too quiet” and that questions “of a more controversial tone” had been posted to inspire more participation. About 70 posts found their way to the site, though many more students have followed the discussion but chose not to contribute, Horton said. Still, many found the program unappealing.
Claire Thompson, a Medill sophomore, said that the university should work to bring the program to students on a more individualized basis, perhaps incorporating it into freshman seminars. Wagner agreed.
“If there was a lecture in [my dorm] or something, I would be more interested,” he said.
To that end, Horton and the rest of the “One Book” committee have been planning a shake-up of how the program will be carried out for the rest of the academic year. Although past audiences at the events had ranged from 150 to more than 400 students and Evanston residents, the faculty members in charge recognized it is difficult to attract busy Northwestern students to academic lectures, Horton said.
Hence, Winter Quarter events were intended to be more casual — taking place in student residences instead of auditoriums and incorporating movies and greater discussions. Speaker Ken Miller ate lunch in the Elder dining hall, and workshops with Quammen were planned for Medill students, according to Horton. In addition, various activities to celebrate Darwin’s 200th birthday are to take place on Feb. 12.
“The focus in the past has always been on bringing in lecturers,” she said. “This year, we want to do more to bring info and activities [to students] in a more informal, more fun way.”
Though participation has lagged at times, Horton is optimistic about One Book’s future and is happy with its continued growth and increased success over the past three years. “We’re still learning how to use the One Book model to build community,” she said. “Each year we’ve learned a little bit more about how to do things. I would say [the program] is a good investment.”