Preview of Work Day at WWC
Jasper Everingham | March 30, 2023
Work Day — a century-old tradition of service and community — is happening at Warren Wilson College (WWC) on April 6.
Shannon McNair, the associate director of work, said that she and many others could not be more excited, calling Work Day her “favorite day of the year.”
“Workday is very close to our hearts,” McNair said. “We talk a lot about building community on campus, and what better way to actually build community than to be in a place together — not just students, but working alongside with faculty and staff members. It's a chance for students to really show how knowledgeable and integral their work is on campus.”
Paul Bobbitt, the associate dean of work, said that he is also incredibly excited about Work Day. He agreed with McNair, strongly emphasizing the importance of community both at WWC in general and on Work Day specifically.
“Work Day is [WWC’s] Christmas, our Easter, our Thanksgiving, all wrapped up into one,” Bobbitt said. “It is our holiday. It is a work holiday where we get together and we get to celebrate by doing the thing that we do, which is working together and being in community with each other and seeing each other.”
Bobbitt also noted that for the Work Program Office (WPO), Work Day is far from a single-day affair. He said that the behind- the- scenes effort to put Work Day on is colossal, and requires months of preparation from the WPO. Bobbitt likened making Work Day run smoothly to putting on a play production: the audience only sees a fraction of the actual effort done to bring it to life.
“A two hour performance takes two months of rehearsals, dress rehearsal, costume design,” Bobbitt said. “[Work Day] is the same thing. We're trying to provide a meaningful work experience for 300 people, so it's a lot of preparation and thought: it can't just be willy nilly. We can't just say we're going to put people hither and yon, because we don't have the ability to [be so spread out].”
McNair said she agreed with that point and talked about all the different people and groups working hard to make Work Day a reality every year, from students to faculty to staff.
“It's a big teamwork effort,” McNair said. “The Work Day Committee is really pivotal to making sure that things get done. We have fifteen, twenty people on the Work Day Committee right now, and they're the ones that are running around with Paul to view job sites [and] determine what tools are needed. They're the ones that are helping plan the actual day-of projects.”
In addition to the Work Day Committee, McNair also spoke to the work the WPO crew has done to make Work Day happen. She said that the crew starts planning for Work Day for almost the entirety of the spring semester leading up to it.
“I really can't stress how much work the WPO crew puts into prep for workday,” McNair said. “They're the ones that are putting together safety kits. They're doing the communication out to campus. They're organizing the projects through spreadsheets and emails. They're communicating with project leaders to make sure everybody knows the information they need. I've got a crew member right now who's washing 300 pairs of gloves to make sure they're clean and ready for the actual day of. They bust their asses to make sure this day happens.”
In terms of the actual day itself, breakfast is scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m. and go until 8:30. From 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. is rallying, getting organized and going to the various preselected project sites. The actual “work” component of Work Day is from 9:00 to noon, with a period afterwards for wrapping up. From 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the WPO is planning on having lunch and a Work Day party in Murphy’s Pasture.
While work day is not mandatory, students are very heavily encouraged by the school to attend and will only receive work hours for Work Day if they actually show up, Bobbitt said. Bobbitt also added that Gladfelter dining hall and Cowpie Cafe will both be closed for lunch on Work Day and that lunch will instead be provided at Murphy’s Pasture and will include a smoked pig roast among other options. Additionally, while Work Day officially stops at lunch and most projects are scheduled to be done by then, Bobbitt did add that there are some projects that will go all day for those who want to keep working.
“At the end of the day it’s a social movement,” Bobbit said. “If you're [part of a group] working on a project with 100 other people working on projects around you then you hear, you know, people’ve got boom boxes jamming and people are singing and having a good time, things are happening that makes you feel like you're part of something.”