Readin' + Writin' for the Hard-Hat Crowd

Readin' + Writin' for the Hard-Hat Crowd explores the history of an urban public university from its conception in 1964 to the dawn of the twenty-first century. The reader views this place in time through the lens of the evolving nature of freshman English , an introductory curriculum that began as four semesters of Great Books. The author, herself among those once labeled the hard-hat crowd , received an undergraduate education similar to that experienced by her contemporaries at elite private colleges. Yet, while this school, once considered a poor man's Harvard, was founded with a mission to provide academic equity, the curriculum evolved to one that responded to pressure for relevancy and practicality.