Volunteers for the Class of 2011 Summer Scholars program will mobilize on Tuesday, July 17, as the university begins efforts to organize and mail materials to incoming freshmen who will be reading and studying the Robert Laxalt classic book, "Sweet Promised Land" when freshmen come to campus in August.

Labels for the mailing effort are already in hand. Program organizers will be convening volunteers to help organize assembly tables on Tuesday. Volunteers will work on affixing bookplates and mailing labels, inserting bookmarks and letters and stuffing envelopes. Incoming freshman will receive an introductory letter explaining the purpose of the program and instructions on reading Laxalt's 1957 book about an immigrant father's return to his homeland in the Basque country of the Pyrenees Mountains.

This is the first year of the Summer Scholars program, which has a goal of providing the class of 2011 the opportunity to participate in an academic discussion with faculty, staff and administrators about "Sweet Promised Land."

Laxalt, who graduated from the University of Nevada, joined the staff at the university in 1954, founding the University of Nevada Press and teaching for many years in the Reynolds School of Journalism. He held the position of the Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor and subsequently the position of Edward W. Scripps II Visiting Professor in Journalism. Laxalt wrote 17 books and countless articles. He was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

All entering freshmen will read "Sweet Promised Land" over the summer and come to orientation in August, ready to engage in small group discussions with other freshmen and members of the university community.

To find out more about volunteering for Tuesday's event, or for volunteering for August's discussion groups, contact Robin Gonzalez with Faculty Senate at (775) 682-7518 or robgon@unr.edu