Students look to create new co-op

In the spring of 2010, Carlyn Cook ’13, Teddy Eyster ’13 and the rest of the sophomore class had a decision to make about their eating plans for the following year.

As Cook did not want to join an eating club, buy a residential college meal plan or become independent, her remaining option was to join a co-op — and Eyster opted to do the same. Yet rising numbers in co-op membership in recent years resulted in both students’ placements on the waitlist for 2 Dickinson St., the vegetarian co-op. Because the Brown and International Food co-ops also had lengthy waitlists, Cook and Eyster instead chose to explore the option of starting a fourth co-op at the University.

In their efforts to form a fourth co-op, Cook and Eyster proposed cooking local, sustainable — though not necessarily vegetarian — food. After compiling a list of 40 interested students, they met with Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students Associate Dean Maria Flores-Mills and Program Coordinator Joseph Ramirez to ask the University to support a new co-op, but their request was ultimately turned down by ODUS.

Cook and Eyster were told there was no available kitchen on campus to accommodate the needs of an additional co-op. Finding an appropriate space would have required renovations, which would have taken “a community resource once available to a wide variety of upperclassmen and restrict its use” to only a group of students, Flores-Mills said.

Additionally, a fourth co-op would have required a reallocation of resources, as the University would have had to provide funding for the co-op from another source, she explained.

Cook and Eyster also requested to book an available kitchen for two hours each evening, or to occupy the little-used Campus Club kitchen. Both options were rejected due to logistical reasons.

“Teddy and I both felt that we got shut down every way we tried to go,” Cook said. “We tried to compromise, but they were not receptive to the idea at all, which is frustrating.”

In the past, the University has approved requests for kitchen space for co-ops such as the IFC, whose members cook in a Laughlin Hall kitchen. At the time of IFC’s founding in spring 2009, the Laughlin kitchen was the least used of the independent kitchens, and the construction in Butler College would soon result in another kitchen available for upperclassmen’s general use, Flores-Mills explained.

Instead of joining an eating club or electing to stay on a dining hall plan, Cook initially chose to go independent, before she was offered a spot in 2D after the waitlist opened. But while Cook is now a member of 2D, she still believes a fourth co-op is needed.

“A lot of people are not in their ideal eating situation,” she said, adding that many of her friends on residential college meal plans are not very happy with their dining option.

Eyster, currently a member of Tower Club, said he also feels more co-ops are necessary, because the eating clubs are not the most environmentally sustainable organizations. Moreover, the environment in residential colleges is not ideal for socializing, due to the small number of upperclassmen who choose to eat there, he said.

Some upperclassmen report different experiences, however. Brandon Bark ’13 said he was happy with his decision to stay in Mathey College as a junior and enjoyed meeting new underclassmen through the college. The eating clubs are “incredibly expensive,” Bark said, and since the residential colleges are open to the general student body, he explained that he did not feel like he was missing out on social opportunities.

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“Many of my good friends also decided to stay in the residential college system; the others, I run into quite frequently,” he said.

A 2006 Princeton Alumni Weekly article by President Tilghman described the two basic goals of the four-year residential colleges as “to increase the living and dining options available to our students and to strengthen and diversify the colleges themselves.”

2D member Evan Warner ’12 said the addition of a fourth co-op would be well in line with these goals.

“Co-ops are the ultimate realization of choice in eating options, as the current diversity of co-ops demonstrates,” he said.

Warner added that there are no economic or class barriers to joining a co-op, as membership costs are far lower than those of eating clubs or the average cost of living as an independent. 2D, Brown and IFC cost $500, $600 and $700 a semester, respectively, whereas eating club membership ranges from $3,650 a year at Terrace to $4,135 a year at Cap and Gown. An unlimited meal plan at a residential college costs $2,736.50 a semester.

“Kitchens are used more efficiently by co-ops than by individuals,” Warner said. “If the University really cares about providing kitchen space to as many people as possible, it should encourage co-op growth wherever physically possible.”

He added that the goal-oriented environment [of providing food for a group of people] within the co-ops creates a desirable atmosphere for University students.

Anjali Bisaria ’12, a member of Brown, also said that her co-op provides a unique, close-knit community.

“I think the co-op fuses the community spirit that eating clubs and residential colleges try to foster, but on a reasonable scale and with a bit more of a unified purpose,” she said. She cited the open guest policy — members at Brown are allowed 2 guests a week — as a highlight of the co-op’s social aspect.

As a Rockefeller College residential college adviser, Bisaria regularly eats in the dining halls as well.

“Though I still enjoy eating meals at the dining halls as an upperclassman, I find that few of my upperclass friends actually are willing to go to the dining halls if they have just a meal plan,” she said.

Flores-Mills noted the possibility of a fourth co-op in the future, provided the administration felt that it was addressing needs of the community.

“It’s not an entirely closed door,” she said. “The administration wants to be assured there is a sustainable critical mass of students interested in feeding themselves this way.”

Interest in co-ops has been steadily increasing in recent years. In 2000, Brown Co-op had 18 members; this past spring, the co-op took 17 new members for a total cap of 28 and had a waitlist of 53 students. 2D and IFC are also over-capacity, with 2D capped at 49 members.

“I think the long waitlists show there is still the need for another co-op,” Eyster said.