August 21, 2008
Program Rationale: The One Book program will increase awareness of an issue and engage the college community in a dialogue that invites analysis, fosters critical thinking, and encourages positive change. Students, faculty and staff will have a shared experience of reading a text and examining its effects upon our community.
Aligned with the college’s mission, vision statement and institutional values, the One Book program would foster the very competencies and experiences we strive to promote for our student body and college community. As an institution of higher learning dedicated to “student-centered learning that draws upon the rich diversity of our students’ life experiences and that uses strategies and technologies to maximize opportunities for reaching educational goals,” the One Book program will serve as a catalyst for classroom, and beyond-the-classroom, discussions, creating opportunities for our students to share their experiences with the author’s style and voice, as well as the issues addressed in the book. The One Book project promotes literacy in an innovative way and potentially creates interest within a subject that students may be encouraged to pursue and advocate for in the future.
Limbo by ALFRED LUBRANO
Brief Summary of the book: Limbo is a thought-provoking treatise on the lasting consequences of class mobility in America. Drawing on his own story as well as on dozens more from individuals who share his experience, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano sheds light on the predicament of some 13 million Americans: reconciling their blue-collar upbringing with the white-collar world they now inhabit.
The son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, Lubrano came of age in a neighborhood imbued with typical working-class values like the importance of hard work, loyalty to family and community, and a healthy respect for religion. Academically gifted, he attended Columbia, and went on to achieve professional success as a reporter. But he quickly found that the lessons he had absorbed in childhood would not serve him as well as the upper-class gifts of subtlety, diplomacy, and cultural capital--leaving him strangely isolated from both his workplace peers and the world he'd left behind.
Unfamiliar with the rules of upper-class life, which serves as the model for corporate culture, the "Straddlers" (as Lubrano dubs them) find themselves ill-equipped for that buttoned-down world. Yet they share Lubrano's ambiguity, and their choices frequently challenge the philosophical and moral assumptions of working-class life.
Combining personal stories with the latest thinking from leading experts, Limbo offers a unique blend of deeply felt first-person confessional and sociological study that is both profoundly affecting and rigorously informed. Though it wholly dismisses the widely held notion that class is a dead subject in America, it avoids cynicism and easy judgment, seeking only to provide a glimpse at what lies beneath our social and cultural fabric.
The profiles here show a remarkable consistency of emotion and experience across a diverse demographic that crosses all boundaries of sex, race, and religion. Opening a long-awaited dialogue, Limbo reflects the reality of a unique class struggling with an all-American brand of cultural isolation. There is something for everyone in these honest and eloquent stories of life in our modern meritocracy.
Aurora Bautista- Behavioral Science Professor, Jill Burrill- English Professor, Meghan Callaghan- Civic Engagement Coordinator, Patricia Colella- English Professor, Cecile Corona-English Professor, Beth Deare- English Professor, Mike Dubson- English Professor, Elizabeth Dunphy-Science Professor, Jesse Gordon-Lending Services Staff Assistant, Sharda Gupta-Economics Professor, Jean-Dany Joachim- Student Activities Technical Assistant, Pelonomi Khumoetsile-Taylor-Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Lauren Maguire- Hospitality Professor, Kathryn Mapstone- History and Government Professor, Alessandro Massaro- Professor and Chair of English as a Second Language Department, Luana McCuish- English Professor, Tim McLaughlin-Chair and Professor of English Department, Mike McSweeney- History and Government Professor, Laura Montgomery-Director of the Art Gallery, Luke Salisbury- English Professor, Mark Schernwetter-Behavioral Science Professor, Pamela Schmidt- Early Childhood Education and Human Services Professor, Michelle Schweitzer- English as a Second Language Professor, Diane Smith- Director of the Library, Elizabeth Sumorok- Learning Specialist and English as a Second Language Instructor, Paula Velluto-Computer Information Technology Professor, Jennifer Viencek- English Instructor, Louise Vrande- Human Resources Associate, and Margaret Witham-English as a Second Language Instructor.
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