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OSCA is a student-owned and student-operated non-profit corporation that provides at-cost housing and dining services to hundreds of students at Oberlin. The corporation is entirely separate from Oberlin College, but all member-owners of OSCA are Oberlin students. Each of the 9 individual OSCA co-ops is responsible for its own day-to-day operations, and together they make up the umbrella organization of OSCA.
OSCA is an acronym for the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association. It is pronounced “AH-skuh”. If you hear people refer to “the co-ops,” they’re probably talking about OSCA.
620 Oberlin students—more than 20%—are members of OSCA each semester. 175 of these co-opers are in housing co-ops, meaning they eat, sleep, and live in co-ops. Most of our members only dine in OSCA, and live in either a college-run Residence Hall or off-campus.
A co-op is a business directly controlled by its members. Members are user-owners; they patronize the business but also own its earnings and assets equally. They control the co-op’s day-to-day operations, its finances, and its mission. OSCA is a housing and dining co-op; other types include food co-ops, housing co-ops, rural electric co-ops, and financial co-ops (credit unions).
Third World Co-op (located in Baldwin, no affiliation to Third World House) and Kosher Halal Co-op (located in Talcott) are special interest co-ops, geared to serve specific needs that the other co-ops may not meet. Third World Co-op provides a safe space to people of color, international students, low-income students, and first generation students. Kosher Halal Co-op observes kosher and halal dietary law. It provides food for Jewish and Muslim students who follow religious dietary restrictions, though membership is open to anyone.
When you hear that students run OSCA, it’s not just a slogan. Students do everything-long-term planning, member education, cooking, cleaning kitchens and bathrooms, ordering food, planning menus, managing finances, keeping track of membership lists, training new co-opers, and facilitating discussion. Every student who works in OSCA is a user-owner. OSCA does hire three paid staff people: the Financial Manager, the Office Intern, and the Food Safety Coordinator. These employees are not supervisors. They work with and for OSCA students, but students do almost all the work. If you need to talk to someone about something relating to OSCA, the best person to talk to is an OSCA student.
Most underclass students are required to live on-campus, and almost all students eat on campus. Because we are student-operated and at-cost, OSCA charges less than the College-run programs for both housing and dining. A student eating in OSCA instead of in Campus Dining Services saves thousands of dollars per year. Additionally students save even more if they live in OSCA. In addition, OSCA’s sister organization, OSCA Properties, has a scholarship program, through which members of OSCA can have a third of their board bill subsidized by OP.
Every spring about 1000 students sign up to be in OSCA the following year. Each person is assigned a random number. No one is given seniority, so membership in OSCA is equally accessible to every Oberlin College student. The lottery occurs in the spring for the following fall. Everyone who doesn’t get into OSCA or into the co-op of their choice can be put on the OSCA wait lists, which are maintained throughout the year. As spots open up in co-ops, people on the wait list can get in, although jumping the wait list is possible for those with financial need. Third World Co-op and Kosher Halal Co-op have an application process that involves filling out a questionnaire. A Third World Co-op application committee, made up of members of the co-op, reviews the anonymous applications and decides who will be in the co-op. Kosher- Halal Co-op reserves some spots each year for students who need to be in the co-op for religious dietary reasons, and the rest of the spots are filled by the lottery.
Each co-op has a workchart to organize the work of all of its members. In dining co-ops, each co-oper does 4-5 hours of volunteer work per week. Some co-opers are elected to positions (such as committee representatives, food buyers, bread bakers, and Directors of the Board), while others sign up for jobs on the workchart (such as cooking, cleaning, chopping vegetables, and soaking beans). Still other co-opers have “all-OSCA” positions, working not for a specific co-op, but for OSCA as a whole (such as the President, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Operations Manager, and Housing Coordinator). Housing co-ops have a separate workchart that generally involves one hour per week of household chores.
OSCA rents its on-campus buildings from the College, so the primary relationship between Oberlin College and OSCA is a tenant- landlord relationship. OSCA works with the College, especially Residential Education and Dining Services, to insure that both tenant and landlord are upholding the rent contract, which is renegotiated every three years. As a member of the larger Oberlin community, OSCA also takes a large role in the recycling and composting initiatives on campus. In addition, OSCA has a sister corporation, OSCA Properties, which provides low-income housing to students and community members.
If you know students in OSCA, it’s likely that you’ll get an invitation to a meal. If not, don’t hesitate to ask if you can visit their co-op. Guests are always welcome, and it doesn’t mean any extra work for co-opers, since they’re already cooking for dozens of people. You might want to plan on arriving a little early, so you can get a seat (and a plate) before food is served. Feel free to help out with the dishes afterward!
If you have questions about OSCA, or you want more information, you can call or visit the OSCA office. In the office you can also browse through the OSCA library, which has lots of information on OSCA as well as other co-operatives.
If you’re not sure exactly who you want to talk with, contact the OSCA Office between 12:00 and 4 PM, Monday through Thursday.
Wilder 402
Campus mailing address: Wilder Hall Box 86
Telephone: (440) 775-8108
Fax: (440) 775-8132
E-mail: osca@oberlin.edu
More OSCA contact information >
Page last modified: 09 June 2011 09:57
Wilder Hall Room 402 | (440) 775-8108 | osca@oberlin.edu (c)2009 OSCA
