The WSU Common Reading Program has announced the Common Reading book for the 2014-15 school year, “Garbology.”

Daniel J. Bernardo, WSU interim provost and executive vice president, chose “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash,” by non-fiction author Edward Humes, as the book that will spearhead the university’s yearly Common Reading Program. The book was chosen out of the four books suggested.

“I just hope we have a more conscious eye to what we consume and waste,” said Karen Weathermon, co-director of the Common Reading Program.

Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of many non-fiction books. In his personal website, Humes said he writes stories that he can keep digging into in order to show his readers the worlds most do not get to see. And one facet of life that is often overlooked is garbage.

“Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash,” is described as a look inside the reality of consumption. Humes writes that waste is America’s “largest export,” with each citizen creating more than 7 pounds of trash daily, on average.

In his book he writes about how the real effects of America’s waste on the environment and economy are hidden from the general population and what people can do to reverse the growing trends.

“Garbology” is the eighth Common Reading book used in courses. An apparent lack of student-faculty engagement sparked the program, which is meant to introduce different ways of thinking to all academic disciplines.

“Students get to see a side of the university which they may have never known existed,” said Susan Poch, co-director of the Common Reading Program. She said the books that are considered must be interesting to several demographics and cover issues that can be looked at in a multi-disciplinary context.

The Common Reading books are used in many courses on campus, including Roots of Contemporary Issues and even capstone and graduate level classes, Weathermon said.

“I think it offers a way for both students and faculty to think outside of the course,” said Clif Stratton, assistant director of the Roots of Contemporary Issues program.

The Common Reading books offer a level of flexibility when planning curriculums and help bridge the gap between disciplines by asking a common set of questions, Stratton said.

The books are meant to not only teach a certain topic but to bring all facets of the University together in order to solve a collective problem, Weathermon said.

In next year’s case, that problem is trash.

Weathermon said “Garbology” was seen as a practical and very relevant choice, both inside the classroom and out.

Weatherman and Poch said they hope that the new Common Reading book will spark student and faculty initiatives to re-think waste management policies on campus and in town.