The Work Program to Implement Student-Driven Changes
Emily Cobb | February 18, 2024
On Feb. 4, 2025, the Provost and Dean of the Faculty Jay Roberts announced that two changes in the work program will be implemented starting in the fall semester of 2025: a 10.5% increase in pay from $9.05 to $10 an hour, and an increase in general contract hours from 8 hours weekly to 10 hours.
After the departure of the Associate Dean of Work, Paul Bobbitt, the search for his replacement is ongoing, proving to be tricky as the work program and its mission undergoes changes.
“The work program is going through a Strategic Action Plan right now, and so the direction that the work program is going is going to determine who we need to get into that [associate dean of work] role,” Shannon McNair, who started at Warren Wilson College (WWC) in 2018 as the data and operations coordinator for the work program before moving to associate director and now as the director of work engagement, said.
The college hopes to hire someone for the position by summer to allow McNair to train them before the fall semester.
“The wage increase was a passion project of Paul Bobbitt and our previous financial aid director, Derrick Everhart,” McNair said. “They were the forefronts of that and big advocates. It's been almost two years in the planning, and now we're in the financial place to make it happen. Big shout out to Cabinet and the Board of Trustees for being big advocates for making it happen.”
Kiki Barnett is a junior and philosophy major who has been on the Work Program Crew their entire time at WWC and is now a crew leader.
“I'm really excited about the pay raise,” Barnett said. “I know it's not the number that we [students] want, but it's a step in the right direction. My office has been fighting really hard for a long time to have competitive wages and things that suit the livable wage.”
McNair expressed how this has opened the door for discussions on wage increases to occur every few years. The general contract hours increase is another change that has been in the works since its initial change in 2020.
“It's more reflective of our pre-Covid structure,” McNair said. “NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, has done a lot of research and data-driven stuff to show that at least 10 hours of engagement a week is what's really necessary to build up skill development. When we were doing our listening sessions back in 23-24 the feedback that we got from a lot of supervisors, a lot of crew leaders and a lot of folks on general contracts is eight hours a week is kind of tough to get the skill development, get the training and get what needs to happen done.”
Barnett also highlighted how though this increase in hours is overwhelming, there are resources.
“We understand that $10 isn't what they need to be paid, but that's what we can pay,” Barnett said. “If anyone is scared about feeling overwhelmed about their hours, a big thing all of our crew members are trained to do is to help make people's schedules and having them [students] find creative ways to work.”
However, there are complaints about the increase in hours, specifically with how some students are paid. Natalie Helser is a freshman whose work crew is an on-campus internship as an herb educator, creating curriculum for use on campus and in local public elementary schools. Helser also receives the Milepost One scholarship, which covers full tuition all four years. Milepost One is adjusted per semester to cover what the work scholarship does not.
“Being on the work crew doesn't do anything for you financial-wise since we [free-tuition recipients] already have tuition covered,” Helser said. “If you're on a full-ride scholarship, you probably have quite a need for financial aid, and so you want help paying for your room and board, which means you need to get an outside job, but you can't because you're doing the work program.”
Barnett and Helser also stressed the importance of community on campus the work program provides.
“We kind of have the crews that you think of when you think of Wilson like our working lands crew, and I think that's a great opportunity for those people on higher contracts because that requires specialized labor,” Barnett said. “These [non-land crews] are the things you forget about. So having that ability to be like, ‘I'm in here 10 hours a week, this is my office, I feel like I'm really a backbone’ you [can] see how you affect [the campus life]. I think that's important because at Wilson, our idea is community.”
McNair and Barnett remain hopeful that these changes will encourage student leadership and crew connection.
Additionally, the college is looking to change the work program in other ways. With the student, faculty and staff advice, it is leaning towards the three-bucket model and work-integrated learning for credit. The college is continuing to host feedback sessions on this matter.