In addition to their coursework, each student performs at least 20 hours of labor per week. Most of the labor on campus, from cleaning bathrooms to harvesting hay, is done by students. Labor positions often involve significant responsibilities or complex skills and students also take on leadership roles through their labor assignments.

The student-elected Labor Commissioner works with college staff to identify labor needs. At the beginning of each academic term, students are reassigned positions by the “L-C”. Students work with staff supervisors in either the boarding house (kitchen and dining hall), farm, garden, dairy, mechanic’s shop, ranch, or office.

Though much of the work is agricultural or technical in nature, Deep Springs is not an agricultural nor a technical college. Work is not conducted in exchange for the scholarship. Rather, the labor program allows students to contemplate their role in a community, to practice working hard, and to foster a broad sense of ownership and responsibility.