Co-operative Living
From OSU Wiki
Contents |
Antioch House
Antioch House is located at 620 NW 27th. Antioch is a Christian house with 58 residence. The house is a 10 minute walk from campus. The purpose of the Antioch House is to worship God by raising up men for Christ through: dependence on the word of God, developing a strong prayer life, unity in the faith through humility, and reaching the community for Christ.
Avery Lodge
Avery Lodge is a men's cooperative house at Oregon State University. They have the capacity for 55 members. Avery Lodge is located on campus at 9th and Madison.
Avery Lodge started as Campus Club in September of 1940. Campus Club was the only pre-World War II co-op to stay open during the war and at present is the longest continually operating cooperative at OSU. During the 1939-1940 school year, approximately 25 male students were living with Mrs. Blacker at 1759 "A" Street. When these arrangements were not continued the next year, the group decided to form a cooperative and moved to 1409 Monroe Street.
Azalea House
The Azalea house is an all womens cooperative house. The house can accommodate 55 girls at a time. Azalea is affiliated with Oregon State University, and as such does not endorse any religious affiliation. The women have study rooms shared with 2-4, where most of the personal items are kept.
The house has a cook named Barry, who is the best cook of all houses in the quad. He is friendly, and makes great British jokes. He makes lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, and he makes plenty of food to last through the weekend.
Beaver Lodge
Beaver Lodge is an off-campus privately owned men's Co-Op which offers affordable student housing. They are a non-profit organization run by students and Alumni. The house is democratically run and all executive positions are voted for. Everyone does small chores and shares the cost of living, which brings down the cost of food, internet, and utilities. There are no university fees because they are not university owned. The cost to live in Beaver Lodge is about $1400 for Fall term, and gets cheaper each term. Each year the Beaver Lodge and their guests stay in a million dollar house for a three day weekend of fun in Sunriver.
For more information you can check out their official page. Beaver Lodge
Diakonos
Diakonos is a guys Christian co-op. It is located on 14th and Jackson next to Beaver Lodge. It currently houses about 16 guys.
Dixon Lodge
Dixon Lodge is a women's cooperative house affiliated with Oregon State University. Located at 11th and Jefferson, Dixon Lodge averages 55 members during the school year in sleep/study rooms or study rooms and 24-hour sleeping porches. Residents of Dixon Lodge engage in community living and assist with work jobs (2-3 hours/week) to lower room and board costs. 10 meals are provided per week with leftovers available on the weekends. Residents enjoy kitchen access, a big screen TV in the rec room, laundry, wireless internet, cable, and the benefit of being close to campus. Dixon Lodge has a unique history and reputation. It has been a fraternity, an all men's cooperative house, a co-ed cooperative house, and an all women's cooperative house (as of Fall 2006). Dixon Lodge is historically and presently one of the most diverse places to live on campus. It is also considered by many to be the most secular of the cooperative houses at Oregon State.
Heckart & Reed Lodges
Heckart Lodge was an OSU co-op house near the corner of 30th and Jefferson, directly across from Sackett.
Heckart Lodge was closed indefinitely in 2004 by the university for financial reasons and low numbers of residents.
Both lodges were built in 1954 as men's co-ops to replace Hudson and Central Halls destroyed by a fire in 1953. They were both male co-ops until Reed became a women's co-op in 1976(source: OSU Archives).
Heckart Lodge remained an all male co-op house, organized much like the other co-op houses on campus. Heckart's sister co-op, Reed Lodge became an all female co-op in 1976 and is situated right next door to Heckart on the corner of 30th and Jefferson. It was common practice to hold social events between the two lodges (given the conditions of proximity and difference in gender), and it was not uncommon for relationships to develop between members of both lodges (and occasionally an engagement/marriage). The name Heckart was adopted in 1954, after the wife of an university official (as is the fashion for naming anything on campus not directly connected with some alumnus donating a buttload of money).
Heckart was known for being a somewhat rowdy house, as witnessed by many parties, broken windows, vandalism, and General Mayhem (piling spare mattresses on the ground and jumping onto them from the third story roof comes to mind, as does the house meeting wherein a house member actually asked other residents to not smoke weed in the house. His plea was subsequently drowned with laughter). Heckart at one time had the dubious honor of having the lowest cumulative G.P.A. out of any of the on campus living groups (dorms and co-ops included). In its final year, it was not uncommon to have police and campus security walk through the house on any given night, a very telling sign considering that the house's maximum capacity was only 55-60 residents, and actual resident ship hovered between 30-40.
In Heckart, men from all walks of life and all parts of the globe were able to live together and learn from another. Heckart had members from Japan, South Korea, Iran, Nigeria, Burkino Faso, and Ecuador to name a few places. Likewise, many residents came from different states. The spectrum of men ran the gamut of any skin color to all faiths, from devout Christian to Buddhist, Muslim and Jew, and Agnostic and Atheistic. Members of the house treated one another respectfully, and tension between house members was rare. Many members of the Lodge often said the number one defining characteristic of Heckart was that it was "just chill".
A favorite house tradition was the unwilling birthday shower of residents, wherein many house residents would tackle, grab, bind and gag a resident on his birthday and dump him in the shower, clothes on and everything.
The house still stands today, but is being used by UHDS as a storage facility for surplus materials.
Oxford House
House of Charis
House of Charis is located on 23rd next to the Harrison House off Harrison Ave. It is a Christian girls house with 50 girls. It is owned by Calvary Chapel Corvallis.
Varsity House
Varsity House was built in 1909 and many fraternities and co-ops called the house home before it became Varsity House in 1964. Formal incorporation happened in 1967. Varsity House is a co-op of 49 Christian men attending Oregon State University. They are located near downtown Corvallis, Oregon, and are a ten minute walk from the OSU campus. Varsity House is owned and run by the residents of the house. They have an elected executive council that serves a term of one year. They meet weekly to discuss house issues. The house as a whole meets every two weeks to discuss any issues/events. Varsity House employs both a house cook and a house mom. Lunch and dinner are prepared by the house cook Monday through Friday, with leftovers and other food provided for the remaining meals. All of the chores are done by the residents of the house. Each resident is assigned a dish crew and work duty that fits their schedule. The total average time spent each week doing these tasks is about 2-3 hours. In addition to the weekly chores, a work day is set aside one Saturday each term for both repairs and cleaning not covered by the weekly jobs.
