Student campus housing cooperatives are far from new to the college scene, but their popularity seems to be on the rise, with approximately 10,000 students in America now living in co-ops, according to a New York Times article published on Sept. 28 detailing the return of co-op culture in America.
These cooperatives, known in short as co-ops, are houses in which students share responsibility for cooking and cleaning and where they pool financial resources for the operation of the co-op. Room and board not only tend to be cheaper than options offered by universities, but co-ops also offer a close-knit social environment for students.
According to the Times article, these numbers represent an upswing after the low numbers of students living in co-ops in the 1980s and 1990s, comparing instead to the two past time periods when the co-op culture was most popular: in the 1940s when co-op housing provided a cheaper alternative to dormitory living - especially for returning soldiers - and in the late 1960s, when participating in a co-op was a symbol of rebellion against authority.
So how many of those 10,000 students are at Tufts? None - a true co-op culture does not exist here.
While purely student-run co-ops do not exist on campus, the underlying concerns for cost and community that fuel co-op culture do. These concerns appear in the initiatives and choices made by the students of the various theme houses across the Tufts campus.
The Crafts House, for example, located on Professors Row, is unique in that it has a food co-op. In this arrangement, each resident of the house contributes an equal amount of money that goes towards food purchases for the semester. They then take turns buying food for the house and preparing dinner five nights a week, from Sunday to Thursday.
Michael Yarsky, a junior living in Crafts House, pointed out how the food co-op helped to keep costs down. "The co-op does aid extremely in cutting costs. The Crafts House 'meal plan' is $400 per semester. I, like the other co-opers, can opt out of getting a meal plan from Dining Services," he said.
The Crafts House plan compares favorably to the current price tags of the university's meal plans: The plan that includes 160 meals and 525 Dining Dollars costs $2,220 per semester, and the plan that includes 80 meals and no Dining Dollars goes for $800.
"Some students can get the 80 [meal] plan if they like," Yarsky said, "but it is not necessary. One can definitely live on the co-op food. It saves a lot of money."
While the food situation at the Crafts House resembles that of a traditional co-op, the housing set-up does not. That is because the Crafts House is still university housing, and its residents thus pay the same room fees as students living in regular dormitories.
Yarsky said that, although he has to pay the same residence fees as other students living on campus, he receives other non-monetary benefits in the form of community culture from living in a semi-co-op setting. "There is a prominent group entity. After all, we cook, run workshops and run the Crafts Center together," Yarsky said.
According to Yarsky, at meetings, and often at parties, there is a feeling of collective efficacy: "The greatest asset of the Crafts House is the openness of its members ... It is a very accepting atmosphere. You won't get judged," he said.
According to senior David Werth, a similar sense of community exists at another theme house on campus: the French House, located in the Schmalz House on Whitfield Road. "The size of the house is nice [12 people], so you naturally have a closer relationship with your housemates than you would in a dorm setting," said Werth, the house's Resident Manager.
Werth, who also lived in the French House last year as a junior, said he chose to do so for the cultural opportunities it offers. "I really like French culture," he said. "There are always at least two French exchange students that live in the house every year, and they are good at ensuring that there is a certain degree of French language use at the house, as well as imbuing the house with French culture."
"It's really nice being able to practice French in the house, because I haven't been able to fit any French courses into my schedule since freshman year, so the practice prevents my French from deteriorating too much," Werth added.
According to Werth, the only requirement for living in the house is to have completed French 21 or to have mastered an equivalent level of French skills.
The French House also hosts a series of Thursday night soir?©es, or evening gatherings, every semester, to which it invites all students via advertisements through Tuftslife.com and e-mails to students taking French classes. These soir?©es have included such events as film showings, dancing and indulging in cr??pes.
Werth said he also enjoys collaborating with other language houses on social events. "The language houses socialize together, which is cool," he said.
Like the Crafts House, the French House is university housing. Werth said that such a situation has its advantages: "We still enjoy all the benefits of university housing - OneSource, Internet, etc. - but have our own kitchen, dining area and living room."
The growth in popularity of co-ops has not occurred everywhere, however. According to an article published Oct. 18 in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's student newspaper, the Michigan Daily, "interest in co-ops has waned over the past three or four years."
Representatives from Tufts' Office of Residential Life and Learning did not respond to inquiries about the possibility of co-ops appearing at Tufts.
