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Deep Springs is a private, all-male, alternative college located in Deep Springs, California, in the United States. Deep Springs is located in Deep Springs Valley, near the larger Owens Valley and several miles away from the nearest towns: Bishop, California, and Dyer, Nevada. While the official name of the institution is just "Deep Springs" it is more often refered too as "'Deep Springs College'" for purposes of accredidation and to give the rest of the world some idea of what goes on there. Deep Springs was founded under the name "Deep Springs Collegiate and Preparatory".
Deep Springs is a two-year college with a reputation as the most selective undergraduate institution in the United States. Its acceptance rate hovers at approximately 10 percent. Every year it admits between 10 and 16 students. The college supports approximately 26 male students, three administrators, eight or nine teachers, and a staff of five. Teachers do not hold tenure at Deep Springs and usually only remain for a year or two.
Deep Springs is a work college, which means that its students must, in addition to their studies, work 20 hours a week on the ranch farm attached to the college. Deep Springs maintains a cattle herd and an alfalfa farming operation. Students pay only for incidental expenses such as textbooks; tuition, room, and board are covered by scholarships for all students. After completing their associate's degree at Deep Springs, most students continue their studies at other universities, with two thirds earning a graduate degree and over half eventually earning a doctorate.
Self-governance is an important part of the Deep Springs philosophy, and students play a key role in decisions about admissions, curriculum, and faculty hiring.
The institution was founded in 1917 by L. L. Nunn, an industrialist who made his fortune building power plants throughout the western United States. The plants required well-trained engineers who were not afraid of living under rough conditions, so he started an educational program to train the men. Nunn later applied his knowledge in education to opening a liberal arts school.
The current president of the college is F. Ross Peterson, a historian.
External links
Deep Springs Oral History
Because of the unique nature of the institution Deep Springs has many "legends" which are oral stories that had been passed down and modified by the students. Much of the basis of the oral history was destroyed after the rennovation of the "Old Main Building" in 2000. For example the "Origins of the Basement Shower Facility" have become irrelevant as the facility is now removed. However a new mythology is surely being created as you read this article.
Perhaps the most famous legend of Deep Springs is that of the origins of the struggle between the "Meanies" and the "Touchy Feelies". The two clans of students arose some time during the late seventies early eighties. Most likely it has its roots in the cultural revolution of the sixties as new ideas about personal freedom and life experience came into contact with the founding ideas of Deep Springs, such as personal responsibility and self sacrifice. On the one side the "Meanies" represented the old gaurd who viewed Deep Springs as a kind of monestary or penitentary where work, intellectual developement, and character were rewarded by wisdom and more work. While on the other side the "Touchy Feelies", believed that the purpose of Deep Springs was to facilitate 'experience' and provide an environment for thought and developement even if that meant actually doing or accomplishing very little. The M's felt that the T's were soft, lazy, and underappreciative of the opportunity they had been given. While the T's felt that the M's were too focused on what he could produce rather than what he thought or who he was.
The story, which is not to be taken as fact, of the epic struggle between the two clans began with a coincidence. Each year that the student body of Deep Springs has admitted on average 12 new students. These students are selected from a pool some where in the neighborhood of 200. So it was quite a shock when two brothers arrived in the valley as new students having applied seperately and not knowing that the other had even applied. This was Kinch and Misha Hoekstra. Misha had been a student at MIT while his brother Kinch had been living on the streets of L.A. and/or working as a professional model. As the story goes it was the rivalry between these two brothers that caused them to articulate their existence as either Meany or Touchy feely. Kinch became the leader of the "Meanies" and took as his stronghold, "Meanie Mountain", once a walk in closet turned into an additional dorm room, while Misha became the spokesperson of the "Touchy Feelies" and resided on the opposite corner of the old main building in the room that was last known as Petri's Layer, (the cat whom incidentally lived there for 17 years and died during the destruction of the old main building), a lavish example of Nunnian excesses.
The struggle for dominance over the policies and practices of the Student body was carried out during countless meetings, classes and labor assignments for perhaps the next 15 years, it capitulated in 1996 when during the presidency of the great Meany Abe Sutherland a radical Touchy-Feelie known as Octavian Drulea challenged the existance of the student body governing organization known as the SB. Octavian and his band of radicals set up an alternative government known as the BS. In an attempt to enforce the sovereignty of the SB president Sutherland declared Marshall Law and attempted to force the BS to abide by the bylaws of the SB.
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