If co-op members on campus seem better fed than usual this semester, it could be because there are fewer people to fend off at dinnertime. The Oberlin Student Co-operative Association has been operating well below full capacity since the beginning of the semester, when it had 35 open spots. That number is slowly shrinking, as individual co-ops have made efforts to recruit new members, but a membership deficit remains. OSCA is now operating with 617 members, though it can accommodate up to 630.
In previous years, OSCA has been filled to capacity, maintaining a waitlist for students trying to enter co-ops. This year, however, there are open spaces both in dining-only and housing and dining co-ops. “In past years, people have been fighting for spots in OSCA, and now nobody wants [the open rooms], sophomore House Loose Ends Coordinator for Harkness co-op, Gabriel Peterson, said.
A membership deficit could poses financial problems for OSCA and its members. Members pay for OSCA’s operating costs, and the dining and housing fees are based on OSCA being filled to capacity. When membership is down, it is possible that students will end up being billed at the end of the year, to make up for lack of funds that would have come from additional members. This could pose another problem for membership.
“The decline itself may be keeping people out of OSCA…students may be afraid to join out of fear that they’ll be charged extra at year-end,” Area Coordinator for Co-ops Ryan Forsythe said. “It creates a catch-22 — everyone’s waiting to join until everyone else has joined.”
While it’s possible that this year’s decline in membership is an anomaly, the membership deficit has led to self-examination within OSCA, as co-ops try to address the roots of the problem. Many have speculated as to the causes of this year’s unexpected decline in membership. One possibility is that the College’s transition from a need-blind to a need-sensitive admissions policy has contributed to the decline in membership. OSCA’s housing and dining rates are hundreds of dollars below those offered by Residential Life & Services; some students choose to join OSCA for the financial benefit.
“With the College’s elimination of need-blind admissions the current freshman class is one of the richest in years, and that definitely means that not as many people need the financial benefits that a co-op provides,” sophomore HLEC for Harkness, Rebecca Brooke, said. In addition, OSCA’s financial situation has prevented them from offering scholarships to students with financial need this year, as they have in years past.
Despite the demographics of this year’s first-year class, however, the membership problems do not seem to be limited to first-years. “The number of first-years [in OSCA] is going up…we started the year with 100, and we’re at 160 now,” OSCA Membership Secretary Shahir Ahmed, said.
In addition, the possibility has been discussed among OSCA members that changes in Campus Dining Services has given OSCA more competition. The switch last year from Sodexho-Marriott to Bon Appetit may have influenced already busy students to stick with the convenience of CDS. “I still prefer non-institutional food…but I have to admit, Bon Appetit is preferable to Sodexho-Marriott...a lot of people want or need the longer meal times and unlimited food that CDS offers,” HLEC Adrian Anagnost, said.
Students who ate in co-ops out of distaste for Sodexho-Marriott in previous years may now be more inclined to choose CDS. “I didn’t feel as though I was getting a broad enough range of meals to keep me healthy,” junior Katherine Lehe, said. Lehe switched from OSCA to CDS at the end of fall semester. “I agree with [OSCA] from an ideological standpoint, but I’ve got to put food on the table for myself.”
In addition to these issues, there has been a lingering debate within OSCA over the past year over whether or not the organization is exclusionary. In the spring semester of last year, OSCA formed an Accessibilities Committee to increase the extent to which racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups that are marginalized by OSCA feel that the co-ops are accessible. Regardless of whether this issue has affected the current membership decline, many in OSCA feel that it hurts membership levels from year to year. “OSCA for so long has just sat back and people have come…if that doesn’t happen this year, they’ll have to reach out to people who they’ve alienated…in the past,” Peterson said.
Whether this year’s membership slump is indicative of a long-term problem remains to be seen. Many in OSCA feel that this year’s deficit could simply be an anomaly, and may correct itself by next year. “It could just be one of those things that goes in cycles…like the stock market, it just goes up and down,” Peterson said.