The Fall 2004 issue of The Archon makes reference to the May 14, 1932 issue of this publication (see below, with related four photographs), in which the efforts of students engendered much-needed flood relief on campus:
“Senior Class Makes and Unusual Gift to School,” reports a headline in the May 14, 1932 issue of The Archon. Looking for a gift out of the ordinary, the class decided to volunteer its time to dig drainage in the southwest portion of the Morse Field to alleviate flooding problems. [The students] began digging on May 5 and finished the nine hundred foot system by the time the seniors graduated in June 1932. Several other projects followed over the next few years, including construction of a five-foot-high dam to form a hockey rink later referred to as Ingham Rink, and an outdoor board track made u of two 85-foot straightways connected by two semicircles banked at an angle of 20 degrees. In 1942, a new emphasis was placed on the work squad due to a serious shortage of labor in the vicinity of the school caused by wartime enlistments. Students were asked to do chores such as cleaning their dorm rooms, mopping their bathrooms, and picking up the classrooms.”
The academy's archives contain photographs and film of several other Work Squad projects, including the following:
-Cutting grass and raking leaves on the lawns and athletic fields.
-As previously noted, construction of a dam for the creation of Ingham Rink.
-Planting trees around the athletic field and other areas of campus.
-Building up of the embankment at the first base line on the baseball field.
-As previously noted, the construction of an outdoor wooden track.
-Filling 350 feet of ditch over a pipeline to one of the dorms.
-Picking 20 bushels of apples.
-Shoveling snow after heavy snowstorms.
