college
Making the Grade Work colleges adopt pandemic protocols to keep on track BY WILL BAHR
Blackburn College
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hroughout the pandemic, colleges and universities have scrambled to provide academic programming while keeping their students, faculty and staff safe. But what if your students are your staff? Such is the predicament of work colleges. At the eight federally recognized institutions in the U.S., work is a graduation requirement. For five to 15 hours per week, students work a variety of jobs — from sorting mail to weaning piglets — in exchange for reduced tuition, room and board. At Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., students manage the work program itself. “A very high fraction of our student workers are also essential workers,” says Mark Biermann, president of Blackburn. “We can’t operate without ’em.” When COVID-19 cases spiked and many students went into quarantine last fall, Blackburn faced a difficult choice. The college closed campus “about 10, 12 days early,” before Thanksgiving break, says Angie Morenz, the school’s dean of work. “We had such a small number (of student workers at school) that we literally could not have run campus.” Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C., coped with student shortages in a different way. “At the end of April, beginning of May (2020), we decided to outsource for the first time in the college’s history,” says Lynn Morton, the school’s president. “We outsourced cleaning, trash collection and landscaping. ... There was no way we were gonna be able to manage ... with not enough students on campus.” These schools have since adjusted protocols to bring students safely back to campus, and new student jobs have sprung up in response to the pandemic. In addition to working his >
108 BACK TO SCHOOL | 2021
Sterling College
THE EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE WORK COLLEGES CONSORTIUM INCLUDE: Alice Lloyd College Pippa Passes, Ky. Berea College Berea, Ky. Bethany Global University Bloomington, Minn. Blackburn College Carlinville, Ill. College of the Ozarks Point Lookout, Mo. Paul Quinn College Dallas Sterling College Craftsbury Common, Vt. Warren Wilson College Swannanoa, N.C.
BECKY BISHOP/BLACKBURN COLLEGE (2); STERLING COLLEGE
Blackburn College
