Re: Cohousing for a college?
From: Jeffrey O. Hobson (johobsonwheel.ucdavis.edu)
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 94 10:07 CDT
Like Debbie, I too wish I had discovered community a little earlier in my
life (I just turned 25, so I'm not weeping too hard). 

I tend to agree with previous respondents, that the group house model is
more likely than the cohousing model as one for students, perhaps simply
because it is done so many places.  

The specific co-op house I wish I had discovered is, in fact, quite close to
you, and you could visit.  It is Dudley Co-op, 3 Sacramento St., in
Cambridge, MA, 02138.  If you visit, you will recognize by the sign over the
door - "Center for High Energy Metaphysics".  20-ish undergraduates live in
two houses, with one graduate student as the resident advisor.  

It is a large cooperative house, in which the students provide meals and do
all the chores, out of a common budget paid for by their housing fees (which
are lower than the fees for other student housing).  The R.A. (called
something else, tho' I forget what) doesn't have to carry the load in
creating community as much as in the dorms, because the rules and methods of
creating community is passed along mostly by the students.  

The structure includes at least nightly dinners, and I forget what else in
the way of meals.  Chores are done cooperatively, with some mechanism, again
I don't know specifically.  I encourage you to go visit.  

The main phone number (for the pay phone in the lobby) is 617-354-9109.
Someone will answer, especially if you call in the evening/night.  Probably
the best way to proceed is to get the R.A.'s phone #, and go from there.  No
one there now will know me, but some may know my friend Pleun Bouricius, who
was the R.A. until June '93. 

I know that the Harvard administration has periodically tried to get rid of
the Dudley Co-op, but that student noisemaking and the continuing support of
a few faculty and one administrator has kept it around.  I encourage you, if
you're really serious about making it happen at Wellesley, to find some
upper-level support.

---
Another good resource is the various cooperative living situations on campus
at UC Davis.  I will try to track down someone to give you more info (I'm
not a student here, so don't have it myself).

good luck,
jeff

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