Co-ops offer Purdue students alternative housing choices
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/14/2006
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Ashley Bymaster, vice president of recruitment for the Purdue Cooperative Council, said students may not understand what cooperative housing is compared to all other housing options on campus, which may explain why the number isn't rising.
The 12 cooperative houses on Purdue's campus are doing different things to promote this housing option, said Bymaster, a senior in the College of Agriculture.
"We have callouts every month and we're also doing marketing projects," she said. "Wherever there are a lot of students, we're going to try to be there to tell them who we are."
Natalie Bauer, a sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts and resident of Ann Tweedale Cooperative, said co-ops have the same social aspects of Greek housing, but they are less expensive.
"We make it cheap because we do all of our own cooking and cleaning," Bauer said. "All the members pitch in."
The cost of living in a co-op is about $300 a month, as opposed to fraternities and sororities, which charge $500 or more a month.
Candace Cook, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and corporation treasurer for Maclure Cooperative, said the price is one of the biggest benefits of living in a co-op, but the social aspects are important as well.
"It's a home-like community," Cook said. "You get to be very close with the people in the house and it prepares you for living on your own."
Cook, who lived in a residence hall her freshman year, said she prefers a co-op because of the environment.
"I came from a family with three other siblings and I think a co-op has a homier atmosphere that I didn't feel in the dorms," she said.
Jason Casares, assistant dean of students, said although co-ops get their fair share of promotion, they are not "powerhouses" like other students organizations, so the members have to take responsibility for promoting their own houses.
If more students become interested in cooperative living, he said, a new house may be built in the future.
"We've been approached by a few organizations that are interested in creating a new house," he said. "Down the line, it is a possibility; we are open to the option."