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Senior English major and Vice-President of Sigma Tau Delta, Cameron Dudzinski reads a passage from a banned book aloud to the first floor of the Martin University Center.
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Junior marketing major Kenneth Nguyen reads a passage from ‘They Both Die at the End’ by Adam Silvera. “I find [the banning of books] outlandish,” Nguyen later said. “It limits what we can learn.”
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Sigma Tau Delta members Cameron Dudzinski and Susan Eliason inform a student on the banned book movement.
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Sigma Tau Delta hosted a banned book tabling and open mic on the first floor of the Martin University Center on Thursday, Sept. 26.
The event was in commemoration of banned book week—a week from Sept. 22-28 that protests the banning of books and celebrates the freedom to read. Through the event, Sigma Tau Delta members informed passersby about the banned books movement and read passages from notable banned books aloud to the Martin University Center. Senior English major Cameron Dudzinski is vice president of the TxWes chapter of Sigma Tau Delta.
“Reading out the passages, is a way to show, ‘oh, here’s what we’re reading, but why is it being banned, it’s just a book,” Dudzinski said.
Sigma Tau Delta is an international honor society for English students. Associate Professor of English, Dr. Carl Smeller is the faculty sponsor for Texas Wesleyan’s chapter.
“As English people, we’re committed to the idea of freedom to read,” Smeller said. “The idea of censorship is something we should oppose at a general level.”
The 2020s has seen an increase in the restriction and banning of books. These restrictions come in the shape of legal bans from school curriculums and public libraries throughout the country, especially Texas and the South. In 2024 alone, 1,128 unique titles have been formally challenged by politicians and advocacy groups in hopes of restriction or a total ban.
“A lot of the books being banned by high school districts are the kinds of things that high school kids really need to know about,” Smeller said. “Books that are reflecting their own experience and by banning those books, it’s a way of denying the reality of people’s experiences or even denying their identities.”
The tabling also provided a survey for passersby to fill out concerning their stance on banning books and which banned books they’ve read. The information from the survey is to be sent to the West Library staff in hopes of improving their collection. Senior business management major Gabrielle Little said she was unaware of the banned books movement before she visited the table.
“All of the books they had listed on the QR code I’ve read in school,” Little said. “The fact that now it’s an issue, it just goes to show how the world is changing drastically. Things that we learned, [current] kids won’t learn.”
