Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-01
Students Put
Own Stake
Into College
Boys Girls Help Build
75-Room Structure
BY EDWIN c. HILL

BY EDWIN c. HILL
nOWN at Black Mountain Col
~ lege. North Carolina. you can
see a husky young athlete con-
vert forward pass with a
wheelbarrow load of concrete.
The students. boys and girls
together. are erecting their new
75-room main building. II is
entirely an amateur lineup with
The exception of a supervising
contractor and a couple of pro
hod-carriers, and its part OF
the college curriculum.
The main idea of this college
is that education will take"
a lot better If the students put
their own stake into it. and
get a wholesome idea of how
things are built and paid for.
They do all the work of the
college. barring cooking and
dishwashing. and now that they
need some new buildings they
are building them. This being
secondary To the fact that they
keep up their academic stand
ards and get advanced standing
with such colleges as Columbia
and Harvard.
JUST now the big colleges are
- sitting around counting their
millions. derived from the more
modest stadia on up to various
regional bowl outfits. as the
pleasant aftermath of a big
football season. AT Black Noun
tain College, the accounting is
easy.
Its athletics budget for last
year was just 81 But they did
get their back into the rootin'
tootin job of putting up the big
first unit of their four new build
ings.
Their lease ran out on their
old plant. so they got tract
on the Swannanoa River. Is
miles east of Asheville. manned
the concrete mixer, with a tough
-ifre and backfield. partly coed.
and here comes a new college.
without benefit of the Hardness
or Rockefeller Foundation.
| asked John Evarts. head Of
the music faculty, just what
they are up 10. Mr.. Evarts is
husky young man, of New York
and Vermont extraction. who
was graduated from Yale in
1888, later studied in Germany
and served as assistant music
critic on a daily paper.
sc s TO MUSIC" said Mr..
EvartS. I'VE cover faith
fully the best college require
ments for musical training, but
one way or another we manage
to get everybody in, with our
chorus, madrigals, orchestra
ensemble. piano lessons and
courses on theory.
This business of enthusia site
joint enterprise lies at the root
of the project, and we think, in
that. we have discovered some
thing like formula for a work
ing democracy,
I'VE aren't trying any elabo-
ration of social theories. but we
believe that here is a test-tube
experiment in working demOc-
racy which. ii we bring ii
through, will contribute some
thing of great value to modern
education for democratic living.
"Co-operative work Is basic.
and all Of us. faculty and
students, try to learn as we
work. We have students from
26 states and several foreign
countries, about 10 men and 35
women. Each student and
faculty member contributes nine
hours work week TO the col
lege.
Faculty wives work with the
others, on the new building
project as well as the routine
campus work.
s1THE college was established
in 1888 by DIR. John \.
Rice and three other members
Of the faculty of Rollins Col
lege. at Winter Park. Fla.
I'VE have made mistakes and
we have had plenty of trouble.
but we are more than assured
of success, as we find yindica-
ton of our belief that il is pos
sible to attain adult standards
in American college education
and TO graduate genuinely adult
students.
since we began only seven
years ago. we haven't had time
to check on the achievements of
sufficient number of graduates.
But We have been gratified by
the fact that universities of the
highest standing are admitting
our graduates to their post
graduate courses.
with all our innovations we
have countenanced no lowering
of academic standards. We
think we've got "A promising
crOsS-Section of working
democracy.
However. willing hands and
broad backs have 10 be sup
plemented by raw materials.
and the college needs $4,000 for
more cement and bricks for