To the Editor:
A prevalent stereotype on campus suggests that housing co-ops are homes to intolerant, substance-abusing hippies who don't care about their community and prohibit other students from wanting to live in co-ops. I argue however, that these stereotypes are based almost entirely on image.
In a world full of hype, television, and media, image is indeed very strong. But rarely does image tell the whole story. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it doesn't include the other thousand pages. Consider these images:
"There is a lot of drug and alcohol use in co-ops."
"Co-opers don't do anything other than have all-campus parties."
"Co-opers don't follow college policies."
Yes, it's quite possible that there is more visible drug and alcohol use in housing co-ops. But is it fair to say that year to year, co-opers consistently use drugs and alcohol irresponsibly?
This year, there are as many people who use drugs or drink alcohol as there are that don't do either in housing co-ops. And those that do choose to use various substances tend to do it responsibly in private.
As a community, we are a lot more receptive when there are problems than dorms. When there are problems, we address them as a community through house meetings and one-on-one counseling with the HLECs. As a small house - where everyone knows each other - we look out for each other and know when someone is having a problem.
Consider that the HLECs have actually been asked to help students in dorms having drug problems because they felt their RCs were incompetent to handle the situation. There is also fear in coming to RCs because they might bring up matters to other people in Residential Life who could pursue punitive or judicial action.
Housing co-ops strongly believe that purely punitive enforcement of a drugs and alcohol policy is actually counterproductive. What we need more of is understanding and education about drug and alcohol use and abuse, letting students learn their own limits and boundaries, and letting communities handle their problems individually. That is what we're trying to do in housing co-ops.
Sure we have all-campus parties with alcohol (which require the efforts and resources of the whole house to fill a need on campus), but we also have many in-houses, dorms raps, inter-co-op athletics and hundreds of other drug and alcohol free events, which could only be done with revenue generated from all-campuses.
This is not a justification for all-campuses. But consider that the attendance of a typical co-op party is 10-20% of the Oberlin campus. We spend hundreds of dollars and hundreds of person-hours buying decorations, paying for bands, advertising and working at the party.
Meanwhile, OSCA's long-range planning committee is working on its own drug and alcohol policies, among a number of other policies. As communities, we place priority on our own community-written policies first. We do follow and enforce college policies, and try hard to balance the needs of the community and the policies of the college.
But in the long run, what matters is that the people in the community are safe, happy and educated. And that's what we've been working on. And that's what living in a co-op is all about.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 22; April 26, 1996
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