Program Overview

SJSU Campus Reading Program

The SJSU Campus Reading Program is a university-wide initiative that aims to engage students, faculty, and staff in discussions and reflections on a selected book.

Program History

The program has a rich history, with previous book selections including:

• All We Can Save
• Citizen: An American Lyric
• Color of the Sea
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
• Escape from Camp 14
• Hot Dogs and Hamburgers
• Just Mercy
• Little Princes
• My Beloved World
• Nickel and Dimed
• Spare Parts
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• The Circle
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• The John Carlos Story
• The Kite Runner
• True American
• Water for Elephants
• What the Eyes Don't See
• Darius the Great Is Not Okay
• The Displaced

2025 Book Selection

The 2025 book selection is "There There" by Tommy Orange.

About the Book: Nickel and Dimed

The Fall 2005 book, Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a true story about trying to make a living on low wages and what the author learns from the experience. The book recounts the author's experiment of seeing if she could "match income to expenses" on low wages. Ehrenreich tells of her efforts to find work and the day-to-day activities of her work in three cities in three different states. Her goal was to spend a month working in each city to see if she could find a job and earn enough to pay a second month's rent. She learns a lot along the way about challenging work hours, such as split shifts; and job requirements, such as personality tests, drug tests, and uniforms. She describes how co-workers, supervisors, and customers treat her and her co-workers. Ehrenreich supplements her story with references to data on wages, poverty levels, and housing from a variety of government sources. The story is engaging, as is the author's evaluation of her experience.

Discussion Topics

This book is rich with topics for reflection, analysis, and discussion. Some possible discussion topics include:

• Can a person with a doctorate degree and some wealth truly experience what it means to be poor?
• Was the author's approachtaking low-wage, unskilled jobs for three monthsthe best way to tell the story of the working poor in the U.S.?
• What other approaches are possible?
• What is the current data on poverty, and where can that data be found?
• What can be done to improve the working conditions of workers in low-wage jobs?
• How can there be a better match of wages to the cost of housing, transportation, healthcare, and food?
• What can be done to improve that match, and who should be involved?
• What might the author's experience have been in Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is very high?

Related Publications

Some related publications include:

• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, 1933
• The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families by Beth Shulman, 2003
• The Working Poor - Invisible in America by David K. Shipler, 2004
• The State of Working America 2004/2005 by the Economic Policy Institute
• A Profile of the Working Poor by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000
• "What recovery? Working poor struggle to pay bills" by USA Today, June 2004
• "The Myth of the Working Poor" by City Journal, Autumn 2004
• Increasing the Minimum Wages: California's Winners and Losers by the Public Policy Institute of California, May 2000
• History of the California minimum wage from the CA Industrial Welfare Commission
• Federal 2005 Poverty Guidelines from the Dept. of Health and Human Services

Ways to Help People Who Are Having Financial Struggles

There are a variety of organizations that help people who are having financial hardships. Some examples include the YWCA and Career Closet. Additionally, SJSU's Center for Service Learning offers opportunities to help. The university also maintains a fund that provides emergency loans to students in need, known as the Stanley Benz Fund and the Deans' Emergency Loan Fund.