I attended Macalester, a fancy liberal arts college, but I really had no business being there. For one thing, I'm not that smart. In addition, my family isn't well off at all. But most importantly, I'm just not that "interesting."
Those of you who attended Macalester or similar schools probably know what I mean. Along with a bunch of rich kids, Macalester is populated by all kinds of students with backgrounds that are incredibly novel. "From Berlin by way of Sioux City," as one friend summarized.
It's amazing they let in any townies at all. But they do, and I was one of them. Hailing from south Minneapolis, my most impressive claim to fame in my college application was probably my starring role in a poetry reading at the Sears Rotunda at the Mall of America. Other than that, it was corn-fed midwestern mediocrity all around. And I can assure that I received plenty of feedback about this from my freshman year "friends" from the east coast!
Another thing that happened during my freshman year was my assignment to report to work at Kagin, the Macalester cafeteria. Of course I qualified for work-study -- that close-to-minimum-wage job that helps the financial aid students pay for their whiskey and gin.
Like a good rules-following Minnesotan, I promptly reported to work, already accustomed to the food service grind from my teenage years spent in the bagel shop/coffee shop/chow mein joint. I actually didn't mind the job--it didn't take much effort to scoop baked tofu onto a plate for my classmates. There was possibly something a little demeaning about it, but I took a sick pleasure in the role. For example, although I recognized the insult, I basically reveled in it when some girl referred to me as "that hipster who works at Kagin."
The thing I did not revel in was my (completely anecdotal) observation that all the "interesting" financial aid kids got the easy and desirable work-study jobs in the academic departments, while all the locals/midwesterners/southerners got the shit jobs in the cafeteria and the "physical plant" (e.g. picking up your classmates' cigarette butts). I'm sure there were some exceptions to the this rule, but I don't think there were many!
I kept this suspicion to myself for years, so redolent was it of "sour grapes" or perhaps, "not recognizing my own privilege." But finally I brought it up to Nick, my lawfully wedded husband who also went to Macalester and didn't even qualified for a work-study job, so interesting was his background.
He agreed with me. His interesting-to-him but not "interesting-on-paper" friends from Nebraska and Waseca got assigned to the cafeteria, while his technically-cash-strapped but in reality prep-school-educated freshman girlfriend got the "sit around and drink coffee in the English department" work-study job.
The anecdotal evidence was in and I was livid! It was true--there was a method to the work-study madness. The locals and red state students got the crappy jobs (e.g. it was unlikely they'd ever make anything of themselves and donate large sums to the annual fund) while the fancy-poor got the "flirting in the staff lounge" assignments.
I know this probably sounds frivolous but I am convinced that it's a real thing! And if I could get someone in the admissions office at Macalester to back me up (anonymously, I suppose) I think I could write something quasi-factual about this.
7 comments:
I did work-study too. I set type by hand at the fine-arts printing press of my liberal arts college. Did limited edition poetry books and designed posters for campus events.
I guess I was so "interesting" that I qualified for handling lead type fonts (it left metallic smudge all over your hands) and reading poetry backwards while setting it into galleys. I never considered whether working at the dining hall was better or worse.
I think it barely paid for doing my laundry anyway...
i worked at kagin in the dish room as a freshman and after a couple of years graduated to a job picking up and sorting the recycling (garbage). i also was responsible for crushing cans. i got fired from that job for padding my hours five minutes here and there. I just thought i should be able to take what some call coffee breaks, but the physical plant manager was a good worker and she did not like my poor attitude toward work. she was from the midwest. those were some bad jobs. they made you smell bad and your hands get cut. plus those kids used to be able to smoke in the cafeteria in my old timey day, and the trays would come back with broken glass and piles of cigarette butts stuck in giant mounds of untouched fancy food. i also worked in the music department to fill in for someone for a few weeks. also, i am a really bad worker. i hate work. also, i am from the east coast. also, i dated your husband decades ago, but i don't think i am the lady your refer to because i never got to work in the english department or drink coffee. hi shannon!
I know you can't really put it in your post, but I think they made a lot of overweight people work the grounds crew...
Hi Mandy! I can't remember how my blog works, will you even know that I posted a comment in response to yours? Probably not. Anyway, yes, I hate work, too. I'm a bad worker, as well. I can fake being a good worker sometimes, but I'm not. I also worked in the dish room at Kagin--I would often trade with someone else so I could get out of the serving line. Scooping food onto the plates of your classmates can be demoralizing. When I was a sophomore I worked in the library in the periodicals department. I requested the Friday night shift because no one came to the periodicals department, so I could sit around eating sandwiches and not working. By the way, you are not the lady I referred to!!
Limited edition poetry books?? I could only dream of such a posh job!!! And re. the overweight people on the grounds crew--yeah, probably. I don't remember that, but it would definitely make sense. Maybe I will re-write my blog post and submit it to the Macalester Today!!!
hi shannon- I left a couple of other comments on other posts of yours, but i don't see them. I just made them though, so maybe they have to be approved? maybe i did it wrong? I can imagine it would be demoralizing to serve people their food. Did you have to wear an ugly hat or head band? Did they make you wear a hair net with the school plaid? My job washing dishes was probably more disgusting and grueling, BUT as a vain person, I preferred it to serving people because no one could see me-- the dishes all went on a conveyer belt and disappeared behind a curtain of rubber strips. And i didn't have to wear a hat.
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