CHAPEL HILL - Many students entering UNC-Chapel Hill this fall will be reading and discussing a book that challenges ideas about minority rights and social integration.

A committee chose "Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights" by Kenji Yoshino as this year's selection in the annual summer reading program. The university asks all first-year and incoming transfer students to read the same book over the summer, and participate in discussions led by faculty and staff when they arrive on campus.

The book was selected by a nine-member committee of students, faculty and staff.

Committee chairman Peter A. Coclanis, associate provost for international affairs, said in a news release Friday that the book will push students to rethink the definition of equality and how "covering" -- or downplaying stigmatizing identities to fit into the mainstream -- degrades civil rights for everyone.

Yoshino is a law professor at Yale University. The book was published in 2006.

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