To all of you who work so hard to provide summer reading programs and encourage reading throughout the year, thank you. You do important work. Higher education is struggling with our students' reading problems. This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education summarizes the issue. I'm sure it would be worse if it weren't for the work of public and school libraries. Is This the End of Reading? Article | The Chronicle of Higher Education (May 9, 2024) https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-the-end-of-reading Academics across the country are talking about the reading problems they are seeing among traditional-age students. Many, they say, don’t see the point in doing much work outside of class. Some struggle with reading endurance and weak vocabulary. A lack of faith in their own academic abilities leads some students to freeze and avoid doing the work altogether. And a significant number of those who do the work seem unable to analyze complex or lengthy texts. Their limited experience with reading also means they don’t have the context to understand certain arguments or points of view. Again, thank you. Leslie Leslie A. Warren Dean | Library and Instructional Support Northern Michigan University 906-227-2920 1401 Presque Isle Ave, Marquette, MI 49855 *Pronouns: she, her, hers* *Northern Michigan University is located on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabe, Three Fires Confederacy, anhonored alliance of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmik (Potowatomi) peoples*.