Freshman Connections at Ball State University is a nationally recognized program that includes their Freshman Common Reader and Freshman Common Writing Experience.
Though this will be short, I think it is important for me to mention that I am impressed with this type of first-year experience programming. I have never seen something like this done. My undergraduate institution does nothing - other than Orientation - that provides a way to communalize each freshmen class. I think that by providing them their first "college assignment" as a book that will share a personal experience that each of them will now fully understand is a fantastic way to help them bond. They bond over if they loved the book or if they hated. It's a great way to help the freshmen instantly feel as though they are connected to the institution and then to each other.
We always talk about to track if students are actually learning or not. I think the Freshman Common Writing Experience allows for us to do this. Since they have the opportunity to write on the Common Reader, we can see the level of writing competency that the freshmen class each year is coming in with. IF we track these students during their time at the institution and pull random samples of their writing pieces throughout their four years, we can better represent and show if we are educating our students and helping them develop their writing skills.
