About Common Reading

Duck Doing Common Reading

The Robert D. Clark Honors College values debate in the public space, and inaugurated its Common Reading program in 2009. Incoming freshmen read an assigned book and participate in an online forum facilitated by CHC student leaders and faculty before arriving on campus in the fall.

In 2009, CHC student Alex Goodell CHC ‘11 brought to the CHC an initiative to introduce incoming freshmen to debate in the public space. The CHC Common Reading Program incorporates reading an assigned text with an online forum where students identify, discuss, and debate issues raised by the book. The class of 2013 found the forum’s discussion of Tracy Kidder‘s Mountains Beyond Mountains socially, personally, and academically effective: it helps to forge an sense of community within the Clark Honors College and on the University of Oregon campus.

The Robert D. Clark Honors College offers the academic rigor of an outstanding small liberal arts college with all the resources of a major research university. Education in the Clark Honors College prepares high-achieving students for participation and leadership in society and aims to help them understand the role of knowledge in their lives as citizens. Classes in the CHC are limited to 19 or fewer students and complement any University of Oregon major. The CHC application process is competitive, with 200 spots available each year and applications averaging more than 1,500.

The Clark Honors College is made up of students from every department and school at the University of Oregon—from architects and musicians to biology and business majors—with classes designed to foster intense and creative exchange among different approaches and viewpoints.  This diversity of viewpoints is one of our greatest strengths.  The CHC offers a broad, innovative, and rigorous curriculum in the arts and sciences, fulfilling all University of Oregon general education requirements.

CHC students are active throughout the university and the Eugene community in diverse academic and civic projects. Regardless of their class year, their majors, or their interests, Clark Honors College students always have a home in Chapman Hall, where they can read, discuss, and debate their ideas.

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