A couple of weeks ago Ball State chose a book called "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" as the 2003-2004 freshman common reader.
The premise for the book is simple: A journalist named Barbara Ehrenreich travels to three different states in the span of two years working as a waitress, hotel maid and Wal-Mart sales associate. During this time Ehrenreich goes undercover and immerses herself into the low-wage work force, laboring at the jobs most people take for granted.
According to Paul Ranieri, the dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities, in a recent DAILY NEWS article, "The reader helps freshmen to be introduced to the new ideas of the students and the new ideas of the university."
Unfortunately last semester when I read Ehrenreich's book for a creative writing course I must have failed to notice the connections Ball State hopes to make with this book and the incoming freshmen. For me, and the majority of my creative writing class, this book was nothing more than a lazy, dishonest attempt to write a best seller.
Although I think the overall concept for the book is fantastic, never once did I feel Ehrenreich's sympathy or connection toward her subject matter. To me, Ehrenreich was just trying to get her assignment over with and get on with her regular, up-scale lifestyle in Key West.
I think Ball State is making a huge mistake with this book and is ultimately sending the wrong message to its students, especially to would-be writers like me.
The rules she establishes in the beginning of the book (renting a car, never using public transportation like other minimum-wage workers, and resorting to her ATM card if she is ever in need of food) force me to take off some points for credibility.
I'm not saying that I could take on the challenge of living the way she did, but I'm also not the one who committed myself to the experiment either. If a writer is going to do an assignment like this, he or she must take it to the extremes.
See, if Ehrenreich ended the book living out of her car, eating once a day, and working the night shift at Wal-Mart, I would be applauding this book as well as Ball State for giving its freshmen the opportunity to read it. I mean honestly, do minimum wage workers who actually live out of their cars have a hidden stash of cash just in case?
Ehrenreich, you're a journalist. If you can't handle the assignment and be willing to give it all up, don't even try it in the first place.
I believe Ball State was mostly attracted to the idea of Barbara Ehrenreich coming here to speak. That and the fact that her book comes in less than 250 pages and reads "New York Times Bestseller" on the front.
But if Ball State is going to keep up an "Institution of Excellence" among incoming freshmen, then the standards of literature should probably be raised.
If Ball State chose this book over "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "Race Matters" then it better be because of Ehrenreich's talent on the page and not her willingness to speak at our school.
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