Co-ops offer students support, alternative to Greek housing
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 01/22/2007
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Students living in cooperative housing work together to make a home.
Sixty-six women and 25 men participated in Purdue's cooperative housing Formal Recruitment Saturday. The day started in Matthews Hall, and from there the rushees were divided into groups and taken on a tour of each house, where they also met the members.
The house tours serve not only as an opportunity for the rushees to decide which houses they like, but it also gives house members a chance to meet potential residents, said Ashley Bymaster, vice president of recruitment for the Purdue Cooperative Council and a senior in the College of Agriculture.
"The guys in the house get an idea of what the rushees are like," said Andy Fox, men's rush chair for the council and a junior in the College of Agriculture.
Interviews will help the houses decide who will live where. After the interview, the houses decide which rushees to send pledges to, said Bymaster.
After completing the Formal Recruitment, female rushees make a list of their top three houses. Then the officers of each house and council recruitment go through conflict, a process to reach a compromise between which house the woman wants and which women the house wants, said Bymaster. Women's Informal Recruitment will be in February.
The Formal Recruitment can be an exhausting day for the rushees. Brittany Klinedinst is planning to attend Purdue next year and participated in Saturday's recruitment.
"It hasn't been too bad; the day has gone quickly," said Klinedinst, a freshman in the College of Liberal Arts at Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne. She said the friendly and outgoing girls involved with the co-ops were easy to talk to and made the day go by faster.
One of the biggest problems that Purdue's 12 cooperatives have run into is that most people don't know about them. Bymaster said, "(Co-ops are) Purdue's greatest secret."
The co-ops are always trying to find new ways to educate people about their housing opportunities, said Fox.
Kevin Rodgers, a sophomore in the College of Technology, has been living in the Chauncey co-op for four semesters.
"It's all about living together and sharing responsibilities," he said.
These tasks include everything from handling household chores to managing money. The residents of each co-op are responsible for doing everything in the house.
Purdue Cooperatives differ from the Greek system in several ways, said Fox.
"There's a lot of similarities as in rush and pledge week, but we do our own cooking, cleaning and maintenance," he said.
Fox said cooperatives are not nationally affiliated and are much smaller than fraternities or sororities.
"We're smaller than the Greeks. We have a better sense of community."
This smaller size played a role in Klinedinst's decision to participate in rush.
"It's more of a family than an association," she said, "I just think that it's a great idea and it's cheap."
Rodgers said that the best part of living in a co-op was the good times that the members have together and their life-long friendships.
"If you have a problem, with life or school, someone has been through it and can help you."
There will be another Formal Recruitment held Jan. 27. For more information on cooperative housing visit www.purduecooperatives.org, or contact Ashley Bymaster.