Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing for a college?

[Deborah Behrens (debbeh]

Lori
        many years ago, when i was first in college on a scholarship, 
i lived in a co-op dorm: one of those huge old houses that you often
find in college areas with sororities/fraternities in them.  We were
20 students, from frosh to senior.  We maintained the house ourselves
and did our own marketing, cooking, and cleaning on a budget the school 
determined.  

In some ways it worked well, particularly cost.
The stability was based on having students who had lived there 
the whole 4 years coaching the newer students.  
There was no staff or faculty in residence.  
The 'common space' on the first floor was heavily used:  kitchen,
dining room, living room, laundry, etc.

In other ways, it was so-so:  it was VERY crowded, there was little 
private space, particularly for the freshmen who were lowest on the
totem pole. (4 to a room) There was very little community building, 
altho there was quite a bit of socializing.  I'm not sure if it 
would have improved, but I was not happy there and for a variety of 
reasons left in the middle of my sophmore year.

My sister was at a school where the dorm rooms were arranged in 'pods'
with several rooms around a common living area, maybe 6-10 students
per pod.  She seemed to like it.  There seemed to be quite a bit of
cameraderie amongst the group.  I don't know whether they consciously
worked at community building or not, but they had it.  I think they ate
at the main college dining facility, not in their pod.

Believe it or not, in the Air Force, I was in a similar dorm situation,
with rooms for about 10 women (1-2 per room) clustered around a 
living room and bath.
But we were all on different shifts, different backgrounds, ate at 
different times, and again there was little effort at community building.
And there was the pervasive military mentality.

Hope this is some help.  It took me a long time to realize some of what 
was lacking in my life - you're miles ahead just in recognizing it early.

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 |  Debbie Behrens              debbeh [at] auto-trol.com   (303)252-2215 |
 |  Highline Crossing CoHousing                        (303)457-4184 |
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