9/5/2008:
The month of September marks the real beginning of school; whether students start returning in August or later, when September comes, they are settling down in their classes and delving into their textbooks.
But students often look for jobs, as well, to get a little experience and a little cash. Some find it working on their own or another family’s farm. Some students find jobs for after-school hours. Students returning to college or going there for the first time will sometimes seek employment through work-study grants, through on-campus and off-campus jobs, working around their class hours. For many students, finding work during college is most important, because it helps pay college expenses.
On this day in 1914, The Grand Forks Daily Herald reported that there was a great demand for employment at the University of North Dakota—but it was a need that they were unable to meet.
The paper reported that “there are a large number of positions at the campus such as waiting tables, janitor work, office work and odd jobs, but not a sufficient number to meet the demand.” By this day, there were at least 25 men who wanted work but could not be supplied it—a small percentage of those attending college by today’s standards, but a much larger percentage in those days.
So to assist the men, the college YMCA implemented “a plan that most colleges are using” and struck up an employment bureau. They would use a public bulletin board on-campus, on which any available work could be posted.
The business men of Grand Forks were already using quite a few men from campus, it was reported, but it was thought that the city could find more work for these boys.
They cited how this procedure had been done at the University of Michigan the year before; there, men found work through normal venues, and also by doing odd jobs around town, jobs working for the board, for their rooms, “steady cash jobs” and summer jobs.
“It (was) the hope of the local association at the university that both citizens and students will see the field that can be covered in this way and call the YMCA 1311 University Exchange, if they have rooms to rent or work that could be handled on part time.”
In this way, they hoped to allow a way in which anyone could come and earn their education.
Sources:
Grand Forks Daily Herald, Saturday Morning, September 5, 1914