Members of Oberlin Student Cooperative Association have effused a spirit of solidarity with the unions this fall after wrapping up a tumultuous round of rent negotiations with the College last spring, OSCA members said.

“The OSCA negotiations went first and set the precedent for how the College would negotiate,” said OSCA negotiator Mike McComb.

While OSCA has no official stance on the union talks, workers’ demands for increased College documentation on financial issues have struck a chord with co-opers.

“The College just wants the money, no questions asked,” said junior Eric Blokland at a union rally. He said supporting the unions was important “because of OSCA negotiations and how they went.”

Of the rent negotiations, sophomore Erica Tempesta said, “They would not tell us where the money went when it was in their hands. It was an issue of principle.”

Similar to OSCA’s demands last spring, the Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees union has called on the College for increased financial transparency, but the administration has refused to show how concessions by either party are crucial for the school.

“We’re extremely frustrated with the transparency issue,” McComb said.

The new OSCA contract includes a rent increase of five percent this year, a total of $1.19 million. In 2005-6, rent will increase by 4.5 percent and in 2006-7, by 3.95 percent, according to a deal pieced together by OSCA and ResLife days before summer recess.

Rent pays for College facilities, services and miscellaneous overhead. The College refused to divulge how money in the “overhead” column is used and continually shuffled costs from one category to another during bargaining, OSCA negotiators contend.

“It got to the point that at a certain point we stopped talking about numbers, because they became irrelevant,” McComb said.

Last year, OSCA’s rent increased by 2 percent. But the College, during negotiations, pushed for an increase of 6 percent a year, equal to the rate hikes for dormitories.

OSCA points out that it costs the College less to maintain co-ops.

To offset the increased rent, the College agreed to pay roughly $20,000 this year for a food safety coordinator. While the cash is earmarked for a full-time position within OSCA, both sides agree that ostensibly the allotment will be used to generally fund co-ops.

“There’s an amount that’s there to help OSCA,” said Director of ResLife Kim LaFond. “The dollar amount we’re still negotiating with OSCA.”

OSCA has not seen the promised money and Tempesta contends that the College has put a hold on the money due to small technicalities in the contract.

“We’ll work through that,” LaFond said.

Accounting for the money ResLife is contractually obligated to pay OSCA, the association’s rent costs go way down: 3.5 percent this year, 3.6 percent next year and 3.4 percent the year after.

“It’s the best deal we could have hoped for,” McComb said.

“I think everybody was very respectful and very fair,” LaFond said.