l
u1
Ь/
Where Students
Grow Their Own
'■’he rieh. I hi* poor, the Ituililliisl. flu*
Baptist — nil of Ihem work ilieir way
nl Warren Wilson.
By SII \RO>
"The work ethic is part of the
educational process of Warren
Wilson. Since most people will
spend nearly all their lives work¬
ing. the college has continued to
operate a work program for the
purpose of teaching the organi¬
zational skills, tech nit/ ues. and
satisfactions that can he gained
through the cooperative effort of
students and staff in maintaining
the college."
— Warren Wilson Catalog
When students at Warren Wilson
College sit down to a meal in the school
cafeteria, chances arc that they are
dining on food not only cooked in the
school kitchen, but grown on the
grounds of the campus as well.
Warren Wilson, located about ten
miles east of Asheville and nestled in a
rural setting near Swannanoa (pop.
3.000). is one of the most unique four-
year coeducational colleges in the
country. All the students — from the
wcll-oft to the poverty-stricken — arc
10
WHITLEY
required to work their way. literally,
through college.
"We run the whole gamut from up¬
per-middle-class students whose fa¬
thers are corporate heads, to students
whose parents are deceased and who
need to work." says Richard Franklin.
Dean of Work, a 1969 graduate of War¬
ren Wilson. "It’s a very cosmopolitan,
metropolitan campus — we have a
wide variety of ethnic groups rep¬
resented: an Israeli. Muslims. Bud¬
dhists. Baptists."
15 Hours A Week
In its combination work-study pro¬
gram. the students work 15 hours a
week maintaining the school, learning
such skills as carpentry, electrical
work, plumbing, landscaping, paint¬
ing. cooking, office skills, gardening,
forestry, and photography. They are
also trained in child care, public rela¬
tions. operating and maintaining heavy
earth-moving equipment, cleaning
buildings, tending the animals, work¬
ing the sawmill, or serving as lab or
teaching assistants — all in addition to
academic studies. The work cancels
out room-and-board costs, and job as¬
signments are based largely on student
preference, seniority, and skills.
Most of the 460 students (maximum
is 525). representing 30 foreign coun¬
tries and 36 states, major in liberal arts
(biological fields or environmental
studies are most common). The non-
denominational college, originally
sponsored by the United Presbyterian
Church, was founded 90 years ago as
the Asheville Mountain Farm School
For Boy s. It encompasses a 1 . 070-acre
campus and includes a 300-acre work¬
ing farm, about 650 acres of forest, an
archaeolgical dig. and houses 500 stu¬
dents and 150 staff members.
The campus, which currently grazes
300 head of cattle and 200 hogs, is at¬
tempting to implement a garden and
farm program to provide fresh vegeta¬
bles and meat products for the
cafeteria. The first four hogs were
slaughtered recently and the cafeteria
began serving the school's pork. (The
meat is approved by the U.S. Dept, of
Agriculture and classified as choice.)
“We're hoping to find funding for an
elaborate food processing and canning
program to freeze okra, tomatoes, and
corn during the winter months." says
A food profiling ond conning
planned, ond tbey will "eot oil we
P'ogiom it being
horveif
о*
tell the
THE STATE. May 1984
