Word: blackburns
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Since students work without pay, Blackburn saves about $1.2 million a year, mostly in construction and maintenance. But there are other savings. Says Blackburn Treasurer Roger Carothers: "We have a highly intelligent work staff that retires every four years, without pension." The savings are passed on to the students in the form of lower college fees. Blackburn still charges only $3,500 per year, including all fees-the lowest private college tuition in Illinois. While other colleges fear enrollment declines due to cutbacks in federal aid and a shrinking college-age population, the student body at low-priced Blackburn...
...typical day at Blackburn College in rural Carlinville, Ill. At 6:30 a.m. a dozen sleepy students straggle to the kitchen of the Allison dining hall, where they will cook and serve more than 350 breakfasts for their classmates. By 8 a.m. other students are sorting the campus mail, collecting the trash or mortaring concrete blocks in a 52-ft. wall at the college's new handball court. By 11 a.m. still others are sweeping out the dormitories, trimming trees and shrubs, and feeding reels of magnetic tape into the college's computerized record system...
...workers are not scholarship students with campus jobs. As Blackburn Development Director John Perry puts it: "I don't care if your family is going to give us a million dollars, you've still got to work 15 hours a week." At Blackburn, a small private liberal arts college named for the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, who helped found the school in 1837, all 525 students are required to work. Previous generations of students, in fact, built nine of the 16 campus buildings, the brick walls, foundations and roofs...
...Blackburn work program was designed in 1913 to help youngsters from the surrounding farm land afford a college education. In those days the college operated a potato farm and dairy; students lived in old railroad coaches while constructing the campus. Today the college draws students from all over the Midwest, including Chicago and St. Louis. With its low operating costs and an endowment of $12 million, Blackburn offers substantial financial aid to more than 80% of its students. These days, in fact, the work program is often used not merely for economy but as a character builder and educational...
...Blackburn is self-consciously democratic. There are no fraternities or sororities, and the work program is run by an elected committee of 13 students. Though attempts are made to share rough chores fairly and to match students to tasks they prefer, the pressure grows too great for some: the dropout rate among first-year students at Blackburn is a moderately high 33%, some of it due to dislike of work, academic and otherwise. In addition to attending classes and meeting their quota of chores, students are expected to spend 30 hours weekly in course preparation outside the classroom. Sixty percent...