Black Mountain College Building Project Work Progress

Г' at BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BULLETIN 6 THE BUILDING PROJECT AND WORK PROGRAM In September, 1940, Black Mountain College began construction, largely with student and faculty labor, on tbe first unit of a com¬ prehensive building program on its own property. The cooperative building project — in 1940-41 of a seventy-five room modern build¬ ing — not only assists in tbe solution of an economic problem but also constitutes, through the work program, an extension of one of the College's educational ideas. The idea of seme manual work for students is a corollary of the College’s concept of general education. Voluntary practical activi¬ ties, on different levels, have always been regarded as part of gen¬ eral education and as indispensable to the full development of the student. The participation by students in tbe present building pro¬ ject is, then, the fruition of a fundamental idea rather than an in¬ novation or a change in ideology. Nevertheless, the project is of much greater scope than previous undertakings and plays a larger role in the community life. The work program docs not interfere with academic study but tends to enhance it through the general invigoration produced by intelligently varied activity. Students volunteer for three to nine hours of work a week, depending on their schedules and their strength. Once they have signed up to work on fixed days, they are expected to appear on those days unless illness prevents. Many members of the faculty and staff also participate in the project on the same basis. Thus it is a community enterprise and provides an¬ other area for free and informal contact as well as a point of com¬ mon interest. The buildings were designed with a modern construction appro¬ priate to non-professional workers. The program includes all types of work that the erection of such buildings on a new site entails: