Cohousing-L Mailing List: cohousing for a college

[Gregory D. Wadlinger (Gregory.D.Wadlinger]

Rob S.'s tuesday post brought up some strongly-felt personal opinions about
community and the college environment.

At Dartmouth College, my alma mater, there is a central dining hall where the
freshman class is to this day required to subscribe to a meal plan.  I think
this requirement did more to create community in each class (approx. 1,000
students) than any of the cluster plans recently implemented in the dorms. 

 The innovative architecture of these plans, by taking existing housing units
and creating "common rooms", has really only served to create a housing
crunch and left enrolled students to search for off-campus housing at the
last minute.

I loved the college environment.  I used to hang out and talk in those long,
narrow hallways, those large, loud dining rooms, for hours.  Summer term was
called "Camp Dartmouth", and sometimes that's just what I think life should
be like, summer camp.

But anyway, my point is this, most college environments already go a long way
toward fostering the positive aspects of community that it appears cohousing
communities sweat and struggle to attain.  (Dartmouth is particularly adept
at this because it recognizes the remunerative benefits of an alumni body
that by and large retains a glowing memory of its collective Dartmouth
experience -- and receives loads of buckaroos $$$, more per capita from its
alums than almost any other college.)  

Think about it, at college it's on every student's agenda to get that
sheepskin, right?  Most folks will put up with a lot en route to that goal. 
Most of these are also on their own for the first time, and they are
inventing support systems for themselves without even knowing it.  Hey, I
wish whole world were so lucky to live in the same dorm together (there'd be
no place to put the missiles...:-))

My advice is, DONT go to college and create your own "affinity" house, or
cohousing subgroup.  If you MUST, then go ahead, but I think you're better
off just networking, finding caring people, being your own wonderful self in
the broad microcosm (?) of the greater campus.

I never left the campus.  I love it here.  I couldn't get enough of dorm
living, so after college I shared a house on the ragged edge of town with
four housemates, equally ragged themselves sometimes.  We divied chores, went
grocery shopping together (now THAT is an education in itself), and
eventually became groomsmen in each others weddings, etc.

It's a Wonderful life George Bailey.

Of course, your roommate could be a real horse's behind, so sometimes you
have to adjust.

But really, I think an undergraduate's attempt to do cohousing would only be
redundant and would tend to create a separate existence for himself/herself. 
This would be a loss, both to the individual and to the student body.

Thanks for listenin'

Greg 

wadlinger [at] dartmouth.edu