Co-Op Housing Draws Students
Off-campus home brings students together to cut costs, share labor.
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 9, 2008 -- Shivering in the cold, University of Texas senior Matt Coleman managed to look purposeful while holding a half-empty beer stein.
A party at the 21st Street Cooperative was raging while Coleman double-checked party-goers' ages. It was his job for the night. Or he could clean up after Saturday brunch. At least this way, there was beer involved.
"There's set labor time every week, and for parties, you've got to do a little extra," Coleman said.
As a student living at the 21st Street Co-op, Coleman is required to contribute four hours of labor each week to housing maintenance. Owned by Austin-based nonprofit College Houses, 21st Street Co-op has become something of an institution since opening next to the UT campus in 1974.
The co-op was founded as a way to embody cultural change and offer an alternative to the university's formal education structure, said Allen Robinson, College House's general administrator.
"The original structure was more focused on education," Robinson said. "People were hired to cook and clean, and professors actually lived in the houses."
The nonprofit company opened in 1964 and started moving its modern cooperative labor structure in the late 1970s in order to save money, Robinson said.
"It was more cost effective," Robinson said. "It also helps to create and strengthen the community and creates a bond among the residents."
Rather than simply assign menial labor tasks, the 21st board of directors tries to use residents' special skills, says board chairman Thomas Butler.
"There's a haircutter, somebody to teach guitar lessons and, of course, people to make meals," Butler said.
The co-op has avoided making "traditional" assignments, such as relegating women to such duties as cooking and cleaning. It has never considered gender when making household assignments, says Jody Cross, the co-op's trustee.
"Anyone can pretty much do anything," Cross said. "There are just as many guys in the kitchen as there are girls."
Women can also find themselves in leadership roles pretty easily, Cross said.
