Bergen Community College Launches 'The Common Read' Program

PARAMUS, NJ — When Dr. Lou Ethel Roliston taught Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between The World and Me" to an English class at Bergen Community College last year, she was struck by the conversations it generated between her and her students. She realized this dialogue surrounding race and identity in America needed to be extended beyond the walls of her classroom.

Spearheaded by the equity council, Bergen Community College is launching its first campus-wide reading program, called “the common read.” This is a project that will encourage the entire college community, through both class curricula and extracurricular programming, to read Coates’s novel and engage in discussions about its message.

“The common read” falls under one of President Eric M. Friedman’s 11 presidential goals, which is “to lead and support efforts to establish a vision and path forward for Bergen Community College’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.”

Between The World and Me is a widely-acclaimed nonfiction book published in 2015 that Coates wrote as a letter to his son where he addresses issues of racism and black identity in the United States. Roliston, who is both an English professor and the co-chair of the equity council, suggested the campus should read this book as part of the council’s initiative to strengthen the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Roliston said many English professors incorporated Coates’ novel into their classes, particularly during the pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd.

“The kinds of responses that I was getting from students made it clear to me that this is a conversation that students felt they needed to have,” Roliston said.

“People were reflecting on their own perspectives on race and obviously on the George Floyd incident. People were talking about the kinds of experiences they had and how basically we’re a racialized society. They felt strongly that we needed, at this time, to change.”

Bergen College represents a “majority minority” institution, with non-Caucasians comprising 60% of enrollments. Given this statistic, Roliston said it is important to have ongoing discussions about diversity and inclusion, especially because this isn’t something the college has really done before.

Throughout this academic year, programming that will involve discussions of the novel includes new student orientation, adjunct faculty training, faculty development workshops, music concerts, art gallery exhibitions, historical presentations, social justice themed conferences, writing contests and reading circles.

Roliston explained this project is also very interdisciplinary in that conversations about race will be incorporated into songwriting classes and art and theater classes. She said even some math professors are organizing reading groups.

Training faculty members to foster these discussions will be a significant aspect of the initiative, as well.

“Some faculty are a little reluctant to deal with racial issues in the classroom,” Roliston said. “So we have a lot of workshops prepared and training to get them in a place where they are comfortable with this kind of uncomfortable conversation.”

In simple terms, Roliston said the goal of “the common read” is to get people talking about issues that are often swept under the rug.

“It’s all about the conversation. The book is just sort of a catalyst to start this conversation, but the important thing is to have the conversation.”