Jim Dale  

  Education              

Blackburn is a very unique college. For many decades, it has proudly been the only college with a student work-program of its type. Every regular student that attends Blackburn College lives on campus and works 15 hours each week at a particular assigned job (unrelated to the student's area of study).  The students are not paid for the work, but it is taken into account by relatively low room & board fees.
Beyond the administration & faculty, there are only a small handful of hired staff. The students do virtually everything, even things like security and construction. For example, most of the buildings at Blackburn were built by student labor. These include the hall where I lived (& presided) and a multi-million-dollar indoor swimming pool with handball courts, offices, etc. My last two years, I worked "New-Con" (the new construction department) doing masonry work on the new swimming pool, and the first two years I did carpentry & upholstery.
A Work Committee, made up entirely of students, manages the Work-Program. It is composed of a Men's Work Manager, a Women's Work Manager, and about a dozen Work Heads, each of which manages a different department. I had two roommates who were Work-Heads in Campus-Maintenance/New-Con.  (I had also tried out for New-Con Work-Head myself, but had more success in student government and other areas. Well, you can't always get everything!)
Blackburn is also praised for an exceptionally high academic rating. Most years, it usually has outstanding soccer & basketball teams, especially for its size (about 400 students).

email:   jim@jimdale.com