Graduate students looking for a cheaper alternative to traditional off-campus housing will have a new option this academic year with the re-opening of the Janet Smith Student Cooperative House on the corner of Alder Street and 18th Avenue. It’s the first co-op strictly for graduate students at the University.
Members of the Students’ Cooperation Association staff and board of directors say they hope the house will provide graduate students with an environment more suited to their needs.
The house has a pool table in the basement and designated study rooms available, but will operate like the other co-op houses in all other aspects, Recruitment Coordinator William Maxwell said.
The Janet Smith House is named after a woman who helped open the first women’s co-op in Eugene in the 1930s. It was purchased by the SCA in 1981, but was leased to Passages in 1997 as a halfway house for drug-dependent ex-convicts. It was turned back into a student co-op in 2000.
The co-op was created in the 1930s after the Depression by students who wanted to save money by sharing the cost of housing and living expenses, Business Manager Melanie Sicotte said. The non-profit system remains the same today with a quarterly fee going to pay for a single or double room, meals, utilities, Internet and toiletries.
In both Lorax Manner and the Campbell Club, two other co-op houses located on Alder Street, the meals are primarily vegan and vegetarian. SCA President Dana Sniezko said this is partially because vegetables are cheaper, but the individual houses decide what meals and meat options will be available.
“In general we’re more relaxed than the Greek system, but there are still rules, and some people are surprised to find out that it’s their peers enforcing them,” Sicotte said.
Students divide chores and cooking duties, and everyone is expected to do at least seven hours of housework each week. Students living in the houses own and operate them with no outside influence, and residents of all three Alder Street co-ops meet together for functions.
Maxwell said that the co-op practices a system of consensus decision making.
“It’s really important to have everyone agree on the important decisions that the house makes,” he said.
“They’re not looking for prestige, like ‘Oh I belong to this frat’ or whatever,” said Maxwell. He also said that co-op members tend to be community-minded.
Students Sequoia Alba, a 25-year-old physics major, and Amelia Raley, a 23-year-old photography major, have already moved into the Janet Smith House.
A single room in a University residence hall costs about $900 a month with a standard meal plan and, according the Greek Life Web site, fraternity and sorority housing prices are comparable to that. A single room of the same size in one of the three co-op houses costs about $385 per month.
“I think it’s morally wrong for someone to profit because I need shelter to live,” said Alba. “It’s hard enough just being a student.”
The co-op draws in a lot of architecture students, who are attracted to the buildings themselves, environmental studies majors, art majors and students from the national student exchange who are looking for somewhere to live temporarily, Sicotte said.
While the Lorax Manner houses 25 students and the Campbell Club houses 30, the Janet Smith House is smaller with room for only 18. Eleven of those spots are already filled, but all three houses are still in need of more residents for fall term. They accept applicants from both the University and from Lane Community College. Any student enrolled in three or more credits can apply. Applications are available in all three houses and can be turned into the SCA office located in the rear of the Lorax at 1648 Alder St. Applications are available online as well at gladstone.uoregon.edu/~asuosch.