Maintenance work
Students spend a good amount of time at NELP setting up, cleaning, and tearing down the physcial apparatus of their communal living space. This work is deliberately scheduled into the program, and much of it takes place on the opening and closing days of NELP. Students reflect upon their labor and relation to their living spaces in journal entries, many of which were anthologized and excerpted below.
In this 1987 journal entry, a NELP student reflects on Work Day: "After spending the last month working on academics in Ann Arbor, menial labor, carrying boats around, moving wood, offers our bodies a chance to remember what their strength is for."
A student's journal entry about Work Day in 1987, typed and printed in that year's student anthology. From the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Library.
Ephemera and logistical tracking of chores become as commonplace among NELP journals as personal writings and class notes.
A handwritten lists of chore systems and duties found in a 2005 NELP student's journal, reprinted in that year's student anthology. From the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Library.
NELPers reflect on Work Day in 1986, blending the physcial tasks at hand with personal reflection on what labor means to them: "I think I may have a tendency to work even when I don't have to, just to feel that sense of fulfillment that comes with accomplishment."
A mashup of student writings and sketches about Work Day in 1986, typed up and reprinted in that year's student anthology. From the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Society.
A staff schedule of Work Day lays bare how instructors intersperse physical tasks with direct writing exercises on the idea of "work" and what it means to students.
Schedule of activities for Work Day in 2000. Work Day is the second/third day of NELP in which students and staff set up camp in earnest. From Staff Materials pulled from the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Library.
On Community Day, which typically takes place during the first week of NELP, students form work groups and set rules and regulations together for the communal upkeep of their shared camp.
Agenda for Community Day, Week 1 Day 6 at NELP in 2000. On Community Day, students engage in activities to take care of camp and one another. From Staff Materials in the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Library.
The end of NELP very intentionally mirrors its beginning: with a Work Day.
List of tasks necessary to close camp at NELP, students and staff coordinate to complete duties prior to departure. From cache of NELP 2000 staff materials in the NELP Archives at the Bentley Historical Library.