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☆ Harkness Co-op is one of a few housing and dining co-ops at Oberlin College. This means everything is totally student run- the cooking is done by students, the cleaning is done by students, and the college has very little oversite. There are 50 housing members and over 100 dining members, and many members are in both dining and housing. There is a website, the link is here however this website cannot be relied on to have accurate information, because it is not updated frequently. The other co-ops at Oberlin are Tank and keep, which are both housing and dining, and Pyle, which is a dining only coop. Harkness is the largest housing coop, and is currently the largest dining coop, although it does not have the largest capacity for dining members.
☆ Co-ops at Oberlin are all part of an organization called the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). OSCA uses a consensus based decision making process, meaning when making decisions as a co-op, instead of just going with majority rules, we aim to get a proposal that everyone is at least okay with. Discussions are facilitated by DLECs (Dining Loose Ends Coordinators), which is one of the many elected positions in the co-op. Other elected positions include the Food Safety Coordinators (that one is pretty obvious what they do), KitchCos (Kitchen Coordinators, they help the FSCs and maintain the kitchen), and AccessCos (work to keep the co-op accessible) and a lot more! In addition to all of those, there are a whole bunch of elected positions which are in charge of making food for the co-op. Head cooks are in charge of planning meals and leading cook shifts. Bread Makers are in charge of keeping the co-op stocked with bread, and Tasty Things Makers are in charge of keeping the co-op stocked with tasty treats.
My Co-op Stories
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Jellyfish Parade
Jellyfish parade is a tradition that has been around for some years now- I've heard it started in 2016, but I don't know if that's true. People gather in front of Hark at 11 pm on the night of the full moon every month. People from outside of Hark are welcome to join, but the core tends to at least be Hark-adjacent. Someone brings the jellyfish, which is made out of chicken wire and cloth, and various people will bring instruments. Traditionally, someone will have some large co-op item they can use as a drum- I have used a 5 gallon bucket, a friend of mine would use a shallow pot. Once there is critical mass, someone stands up on the ledge by the bench and welcomes everyone. They usually say what type of full moon it is, and then they give the signal to start marching. We walk from in front of Hark past Barrows, by Wilder Bowl, eventually ending up at the Arch at Tappan square. The most important part of jellyfish parade is the singing. As we walk, we sing a song in time with whoever is playing instruments. People will often see us walking and join in, and you can hear people remarking "Oh it's jellyfish parade!" out of their windows. Once everyone has gathered by the Arch, we have a moment of silence to appreciate the moon. I like to raise my arms up towards the moon and take some deep breaths. Sometimes people will howl at the moon after the moment of silence, if someone gets it going. After the moment of silence, we dance! Everyone with instruments gather together, and play a beat for people to dance to. People like to dance in circles, with lots of running and arm waving. This will go on for 30-45 minutes, and people tend to just trickle out. Usually, a smaller group will walk back to Hark, singing on the way back.
Nude Get Ready For Bed
Last year, every Wednesday, the first floor would gather in the nude at 10 pm to get ready for bed together. I did not attend super often due to just being too sleepy, but this semester I am making an effort to attend more nude events. We put a sheet over the doorway and over the mirrors, and we all brush our teeth/ do whatever we need to do together. We just had our first NGRFB last night, and we are still having to work out some of the bumps, but it is great to be back. Nudity has been a key part of the Harkness spirit for many years now, but my understanding is it died out a bit with COVID. Last year and this year, we are determined to bring it back, with various nude events in and around Hark. We face pushback in the co-op sometimes, but I think that it is vital to preserving Harkness culture. I try to spread the word of Hark nudity as often as I can, so people will know what they're getting in to when they join Hark housing.