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friday, march 2, 2001
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Sarah Lafferty, Lawrence sophomore, cooks ramen noodles in the kitchen of the Sunflower House. Typically, all of the tenants of the house eat dinner together, but no one signed up to cook last night, leaving the tenants to fend for themselves. The low cost and companionship of ooperative housing is appealing to many students. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
cooperation puts food on the table why 31 people sharing 1 house with 6 bathrooms think it's a good idea
story by emily hughey kansan senior staff writer photos by selena jabara
though it's been in Lawrence for decades and in cities across the country for a century, cooperative housing is gaining popularity in the local community.
by the local community. Lawrence is home to two cooperative houses, Josh Lester, manager at the old est co-op in Lawrence, the Sunflower House at 1406 Tennessee St., said he thought they were becoming more popular.
"Right now, I have 11 applications on my desk and just one room to fill," Lester said, admitting that such a situation had never occurred in his eight years living at the house. "I think students are getting to know about the house more and wanting to live here."
Cora Mitchell, Titusville, N.J., freshman, washes a pan in the Sunflower House kitchen. Cooperative houses are run by the tenants who occupy the houses. Photo by Selena Jabara/Kansan
A food cubby in the Sunflower House labeled "David" holds one tenant's groceries. Each of the house's inhabitants has a cubby hole for his or her personal food items. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
While the low cost and constant camaraderie are attractive enough to apply, Lester said prospective members had to meet at least one criterion.
"You have to be open minded," he said "You have to be really accepting of all different kinds of people, racial differences, sexual differences, all kinds. Thirty-one people do live here and we share a common space. That's what a cooperative is all about."
According to the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) Web site, a cooperative is defined as a business controlled by the people who use it. A cooperative living situation, then, is one in which the house is operated by the people who live there. The Sunflower House and the 1614 Co-op, where seven people live in a similar situation 1614 Tennessee St., are members of NASCO and the Sunflower House sends representatives to the convention in Ann Arbor, Mich., each year.
Lester, who graduated from the University of Kansas in 1988 and is now an HSES judo instructor, said he thought people joined Sunflower House for different reasons.
"We've got people in here because it's cheap, and some are more idealistic," he said. "I like the community of it, it's inexpensive, it's mostly for economical living, it's more environmentally safe and it promotes working together."
A month of living at the Sunflower House costs residents from $164 to $221 a month, including utilities. Residence and scholarship hall costs range from $780 a year for Watkins or Miller scholarship halls to $5,218 for Lewis or Templin residence halls.
"There's a good atmosphere. It's like a big, dysfunctional family," she said. "A lot of my friends think it's kind of cool. And it's cheaper than student housing."
Chelsea Rae Cummings, 19-year-old Sunflower House resident who will begin classes this summer at the University, is new to the house. She has been living there since October.
At the Sunflower House, residents prepare meals Monday through Thursday for those who sign up. Food costs an additional $30 a month. Co-op residents must share living quarters and the kitchen and divide chores and maintenance duties to keep down the cost of rent.
Hilltopics series:
This story is the first in a three-part series on co-op housing.The series will feature a photo story and a profile of a student who lives in Sunflower House.
Steve Dubb, executive director of NASCO, said the average cost of living in co-op housing around the country was usually about $1,000 to $2,000 less than comparable student housing.
it then died down after World War II and picked up again in the 1960s.
Dubb also said the first cooperatives, factory cooperatives, began in 1844 in Rochdale, England, and the boom in co-op housing began in the 1930s. However, according to the Sunflower House manual, the first cooperative in Lawrence opened in 1919 at 1137 Ohio St. For more than two dozen cooperative housing owned
decades, cooperative housing surged.
The University of Kansas Student Housing Associa
tion (UKSHA) reformed after diminishing in the mid-60s, supporting
tion (UKSHA) reformed after dink ing in the mid-60s, supporting cooperative housing. Comprised of faculty members, local businessmen and students, UKSHA, which is not affiliated with the University's Department of Student Housing, supervised the cooperatives and promoted their growth. However, by 1965, all UKSHA properties had been sold because of declining popularity.
Four years later, Human Development and Family Life professor, Keith Miller, discovered UKSHA and started the Sunflower House.
Now the house is in its 29th year and other co-ops are sprucing around Lawrence as well.
Derek Kellogg, Lawrence junior and resident at the 1614 Co-op, which he said was at least two years old, said he thought being open minded was a requisite quality to living in a co-op.
"If you are weirded out by any sort of quirkiness, you really shouldn't live here," he said. "It's a very liberal environment."
Neilogg said he was familiar with the perception he thought most people had of cooperative living.
"I haven't really asked too many people about this but I'm fairly sure most people think co-ops are the resting place for nouveau hippies," he said, laughing. "But we're just a bunch of people who like getting along with others and living in a community."
Zach Marten, McPherson senior and member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, lives across the street from the Sunflower House. Although he said he did not have a set perception of its residents, he admitted he didn't know much about co-op living.
"I do think it's a good thing," said Marten, who chose to live in a fraternity partly because he had friends there. "I would prefer to go into a situation knowing some people beforehand, so that kind of situation is not for me, but I can see that being good for a lot of people."
Dubb said co-op housing was good for a wide variety of people. Like Lester and Kellogg, Dubb said he thought co-op living was for those who desire to be a part of a community.
"Most essential is a willingness to assume responsibility," he said. "While cooperatives provide cheap housing, it involves doing work with other kinds of people. It involves a commitment to living in a community."
n Hughey is an Overland Park senior in English and journalism. She is on e of four women who live in a townhouse with three bathrooms.
Edited by Jay Pilgreen
Hughey is an Overland Park senior in journalism and Spanish who is one of four women who share one townhouse with three bathrooms.
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