The goal of Spring Testing is to draw high school seniors to the University, but an additional goal for this year’s event was to get students to think critically.
As The Reveille reported Monday, the high school seniors on campus this week, more than 1,700 of them, should have received a copy of Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation,” part of the University’s first Summer Reading Program.
The program is intended to increase the campus “intellectual” atmosphere — a Flagship Agenda initiative.
University administrators have said that a hindrance to the intellectual aspects of the Flagship Agenda is a lack of adequate state funding. The University is attempting to tackle the funding issue by engaging freshmen in
the Summer Reading Program.
The Southern Regional Educational Board gathers tuition and state appropriation data from state universities across much of the Southeastern United States. These universities — many of which the LSU Office of Budget and Planning regards as “peers” — include the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Alabama.
Compared to peer universities, LSU lags behind in terms of state-appropriated funds. Louisiana state government provides $5,460 yearly per student, compared to the SREB average of $7,005.
Bob Kuhn, director of Budget and Planning, said LSU’s quality of faculty and students compensates for its lack of state funding, but only to a certain extent. He still thinks more funding is needed.
“I’m always impressed with what LSU is able to do with the amount of limited resources we’re given,” Kuhn said. “We have to be better managers than our peers.”
Provost Risa Palm came to LSU from UNC-Chapel Hill, which also had a summer reading program. The North Carolina state government appropriates $9,279 yearly per student — 59 percent more than Louisiana.
Palm said engaging freshmen in critical thinking through the reading program is a small way the Flagship Agenda is “making LSU a great university.”
“It’s a good university,” she said. “We want to make it a great university.”
“Fast Food Nation” encourages critical thinking by examining the way the fast food and franchising industries have influenced American culture.
The paperback copy is about one inch thick, and just under 400 pages long.
More than 100 pages of credits and notes about Schlosser’s reporting and research are included in the book’s nearly 400 pages.
Some of the information Schlosser includes is the amount of money Americans spend each year on fast food — more than they spend on higher education. The U.S. Department of Commerce computed the amounts.
Schlosser also says in “Fast Food Nation” that a survey conducted by the marketing firm Sponsorship Research International on 7,000 people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, India and Japan, revealed details that would disturb many Christians.
Research showed that 88 percent of those surveyed could identify McDonald’s golden arches compared to 54 percent who could identify the Christian cross.
The book also examines working conditions in the meat-packing industry and the type of food sold in Wal-Mart and served in school cafeterias.
But making incoming freshmen agree with the goals of the Flagship Agenda by getting them interested in “Fast Food Nation” might be a difficult task. High school seniors received copies of “Fast Food Nation” with mixed reactions.
Jennifer Duplechin, a Spring Tester from Baton Rouge, said the program is “juvenile.”
“We have similar programs in high school, and no one reads those books either,” Duplechin said. “I personally don’t know how this program is going to work.”
Spring Tester Kyle King, from Germantown, Tenn., 15 miles east of Memphis, said he wishes incoming freshmen could have a choice of books, rather than only one for Summer Reading.
“There are so many different majors, maybe [LSU could] choose several books and let students choose which one they want to read,” King said.
But Sarah Liggett, an English professor who supports the Summer Reading Program, said “Fast Food Nation” has broad appeal. She said she hopes professors in numerous disciplines — including English, political science and economics — will use the book in their class discussions.
“It’s a tough decision — finding something the wide population would be interested in reading,” Liggett said.
Chad Turner, a Spring Tester from Lafayette, said he does not like to read, but he would rather read something contemporary like “Fast Food Nation” than older literature.
“I’m glad it’s not a classic or anything,” Turner said. “At least it’s something I can relate to.”
KLSU News Reporter Brooke Cormier contributed to this story.Chief Staff Writer