To the Editor:
There are many unrelated myths about housing co-ops that persist. Consider the following:
"Co-ops are very dirty."
Co-ops have no custodial services, and therefore co-opers are responsible for keeping the house clean and handling small maintenance tasks. Sure, occasionally the house gets a little dirty during busy times, but co-ops this year have yet to completely fail an OSCA inspection.
From aesthetics, plant and cleanliness coordinators, to mural painting, newspaper subscriptions and the joys of a new vacuum cleaner, co-opers are very involved in keeping their house both functioning and beautiful.
"HLECS are slackers."
House Loose Ends Coordinators do the work of an SR plus a pageful of OSCA duties, putting in an average of 10-15/hours a week (from house meetings to peer counseling to OSCA board meetings to everything else) for no pay. My experience has shown that HLECs are extremely dedicated to their houses, and do quite a bit more work than the typical SR or RC.
"Co-ops are too much work, I don't have time for it."
"Co-opers don't do their jobs."
The average co-oper puts in about 5-6 hours of work in a week total (i.e., both housing and dining.) They are not very laborious hours. They can include jobs from washing dishes, to vacuuming hallways, to making salsa, to managing co-op finances, to planning social events, among hundreds of others.
If you have a work-study job, you can reduce the number of co-op hours you put in. The only other responsibilities of a co-oper are making sure the house is intact and happy, and attending house meetings and group events.
And those that consistently miss their jobs are kicked out of the house.
"Co-opers don't eat well. They never have any food."
Co-ops provide 19 meals a week, in addition to 24 hour access to thousands of dollars worth of food. Sure, occasionally, we're low on something, or a job is missed, but we're always trying to improve ourselves. At Keep, our head cooks and food buyers meet weekly to plan recipes. In addition to our meals, we also have dessert makers, salsa makers, hummus makers, granola makers and bread six days a week. And contrary to popular opinion, there is meat in some co-ops. At Keep, the average week has between three and five meat meals.
"You don't really save that much money in co-ops."
You actually save quite a bit of money in co-ops. OSCA board is about 35% lower than the CDS, and room is 6% lower than the college. This doesn't sound like much, but add in the annual refunds that have been as high as hundreds of dollars and a house non-foods budget that provides you with everyday needs like toothpaste, laundry detergent, tampons, etc... and your total savings are almost $1500 compared to the college.
"It's hard to get into housing co-ops."
Despite the high demand for housing co-op spots during the OSCA lottery in April, many room and board spots open up in the summer and throughout the year. There have been months this year when the housing waitlist was empty, requiring HLECs to recruit people to move in. If you get on the waitlists, you'll eventually get in.
So next time, please think before you say something about housing co-ops. Come over and have a discussion or a meal. We're working on our problems and we're doing a good job - enough to say we have some of the strongest communities on campus.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 24; May 10, 1996
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