Connections Book Selection Presented To President Albrecht

Utah State University President Stan Albrecht was presented the 2005 Connections book selection by two first-year students and faculty from the Connections program.

Noelle Call, director of Utah State's Academic Resource Center, introduced the book, “When the Emperor was Divine” by Julie Otsuka, to President Albrecht and said it is a fictional account of one family’s experience in Utah’s Topaz internment camp during World War II.

The book was presented to Albrecht Feb. 24, the same day that in 1983 a Congressional Commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese- Americans in World War II as a grave injustice.

Students Ben Toney, a freshman majoring in biology, and Kaitlin Neville, a freshman majoring in engineering, talked about their experience with last year’s book, “Hope in the Unseen.” Both spoke enthusiastically about how they got to meet the main character in the novel and about their experiences in the Connections program.

This year readers will have the opportunity to meet the author of the novel about Utah’s Topaz internment camp.

“We encourage individuals and book clubs in the community to read this book with us,” said Christie Fox, head of the Connections 2005 literature selection committee.

“The Japanese-American internment is a painful page in American history and can be construed as blatant racism,” said Utah State reading and learning specialist Wendy Beck. “While there is truth to that point of view, many liberals in the Roosevelt administration genuinely believed what they were doing would ultimately benefit Japanese-Americans. That makes the story more complicated.”

Call said the “Connections Summer Literature Experience” was created at Utah State to bring all Connections students immediately into an intellectual experience similar to future academic activities at Utah State University.

The author of this year's featured book, Julie Otsuka, is scheduled to come to Utah State University Saturday, Aug. 27, at 9:30 a.m. in the Utah State Kent Concert Hall. All are invited to attend.

“It is part of the university’s mission to help students develop intellectually, personally and culturally so they may serve the people of Utah, the nation and the world,” Call said.