Nearly one hundred years ago, L.L. Nunn, an electrical pioneer and the manager of a Colorado power company, founded a two-year college for young men in California's Deep Springs Valley. Deep Springs College isn't the typical American junior college: it's tiny, with just twenty-six students. No one pays tuition or fees. It's located on a remote cattle ranch and alfalfa farm. The student-faculty ratio is 5:1. Students admit other students to the program; they hire faculty; they govern the ranch and farm operations; they wash dishes, deliver calves, till the garden. In addition to a required twenty hours a week of manual labor and plenty of time devoted to committee work, students still carry a full academic load. Brian Kahn talks with three Deep Springs students about self-governance, labor, community - and the school's recent decision to admit women.
(Broadcast: "Home Ground Radio," 11/4/14. Listen weekly on the radio, Tuesdays at 1:00p.m., or via podcast.)