Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society
By Courtney McEunn
Student Life Editor
On Sept. 22 at 7 pm in the Bentley Garden’s Gazebo, the Sigma Tau Delta members hosted their ‘Banned Books and S’mores’ event. Sigma Tau Delta is an International English Honor Society that has over nine hundred chapters located all around the United States.
At this event, members of the Cameron University chapter of Sigma Tau Delta gave out s’more kits and water bottles, while inviting students to come learn about this year’s banned books. There were posters hanging up around the gazebo encouraging students to ask questions and become more educated on the topic.
Sigma Tau Delta hosted the Banned Books and S’mores night to celebrate this year’s Banned Books Week. After launching in 1982, book enthusiast come together each year to raise awareness for the censorship of books in public schools and libraries.
Makenna Hill, a junior and English education major, is the Vice President of the CU chapter of Sigma Tau Delta. Hill and other members of the honor society were on-site to answer questions and talk to students about the importance of understanding banned books.
“Books are typically banned out of context,” Hill said. “Parents typically report books to the school board, and they don’t really know what’s going on in the full context of the book. They are usually discussing hard, social issues that are worth bringing up and talking about, but people just want to push them down and not bring any awareness to them.”
The theme for the 2022 Banned Books Week is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”
The goal for this annual celebration is to promote the freedom to read books and to end the censorship on books that discuss hard and difficult topics.
For more information about Sigma Tau Delta or if you are interested in joining, contact Dr. William Carney at wcarney@cameron.edu.