Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 9/30/04 Section: Campus News

Students, faculty and community members are invited to start "reading and reading and reading and reading," at any of the five new reading lounge areas on the San Jose State University campus, said Nehanda Imara, associate director of advising.

Students and faculty gathered in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library's Africana Center on the fifth floor to celebrate the launch of the Educational Opportunity Program's reading program, "Honoring the Leader in You," on Wednesday.

Several speeches introduced and provided background information on the reading program that will officially begin today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The program will continue every Thursday throughout the Fall semester.

The program's goal is to encourage and improve literacy by urging students, faculty and the community to commit 30 minutes of every Thursday to reading, Imara said. "Just sit down and read," she said.

"Departments have provided a reading space, what we are calling reading lounges, where students will be able to go sit and read every Thursday for a time frame of three hours," Imara said.

Five reading lounges have been designated around SJSU for students, faculty, staff and the community. People can bring their own books or read what each of the departments has gathered for the program, Imara said.

The five reading lounges will be hosted by African American Studies at Washington Square Hall in room 219, Asian American studies at Dudley Moorhead Hall in room 239, Mexican-American studies at Yoshihiro Uchida Hall in room 31, Mosaic Cross Cultural Center on the second floor of the Student Union and the Africana Center on the fifth floor of King Library, said Ambra Kelly, Associated Students director of campus advising affairs.

Kelly is also a senior Educational Opportunity Program student majoring in justice studies.

Imara said she was inspired to create this reading program because of the Read-2-Lead Classic, which encouraged literacy and the value of higher education sports. She said she wanted to continue with that theme to promote literacy.

The hopes for the program are to promote reading, Imara said, adding that it is also designed, "To bring awareness about literacy and to create a community that reads together, grows together and learns together."

The program has been assisting low-income students for 35 years with fi nancial aid and educational opportunity to attend California State Universities, said Wallace Southerland, director of academic services, in his speech.

"Since 1993, this university alone has served more than 14,000 EOP students," he said.

Steven Millner, chair of African American studies, was an Educational Opportunity Program student at SJSU, and graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

"It is really important that EOP students be encouraged to do this because they will not be able to survive in the tough academic environment of a university if they don't have the discipline and are encouraged to get deeply involved in the great books that are available in a university," Millner said.

If the program is a success, it will be continued for as long as possible, Southerland said.

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