Keepstory: WE OWN IT

Anonymous asked: I heard that Keep has the largest percentage of first year students. What is this percentage? Also, what is living in Keep like? What do the rooms look like? What kind of people usually live/eat in Keep? Does it have a stereotype that might be helpful to know about? Thanks!

1) Keep does have a rather large percentage of first years, but that is also because it is one of the larger co-ops.  

2) As someone who has lived in Keep as a first year and dined in Keep as a senior (so obvs a good authority), I’d go out on a limb and say that living in Keep is pretty laid back.  Of course, this depends on the membership at the time.  At the beginning of the semester, you all get together and have a discussion about what you want living together to be like and you vote on policies as a house, so the atmosphere can be very fluid.  But mostly, Keep is pretty relaxed.  Board games and jam sessions in the lounge or on the porch, lots of couch cuddling, arts & crafts… It can get messy, but more a cluttered mess than a zombie-mold kind of mess.

3) The rooms vary in size.  They are all of habitable dimensions and can grow or shrink depending on the furniture arrangement.  Things like desks and dressers are provided.  Closets are pretty large (I put my dresser in my closet freshman year).  Sometimes things have trouble sticking to the walls, so you might have to get a bit creative there.

4) Friendly people usually eat/live in Keep.  It doesn’t have too much of a stereotype, and I tend to think co-op stereotypes are B.S., anyway, since we’re all human and stuff.  I’d say Keep has the stereotype of being a young co-op.  A lot of members are first years or first year OSCAns, which makes it fun because you get to figure things out together and you’re not all jaded and burnt out.

Hope this helps!  Feel free to ask more questions!  :)

Anonymous asked: Hello! I am going to be a freshman at Oberlin next year and I had a couple of questions about OSCA. First, if you get in as a freshman, does that make it less likely that you will get in later? Second, is it a good idea to try to get in as a freshman (socially speaking)? Thanks~

1) Not at all!  OSCA follows the Rochdale Principals, one of which is for Open Membership.  The OSCA lottery is held each year and is completely random (outside of KHC and TWC, both special interest co-ops that require applications).  I was one of the lucky ones, who got in as a freshman and received good lottery numbers the rest of the time.  

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think it’s easier to get in as a freshman, because we do have spaces reserved on a separate, somewhat smaller lottery.

2) As with any group of people, a given person’s experience in OSCA varies based by individual and the community (which changes every year in OSCA).  I’m going to be honest with you and tell you I had a less-than-perfect first year in OSCA, but I’m also going to be honest with you and tell you that all of my closest, most dear friends I have met through co-ops and would never trade in the OSCA experience.  If you’re living or eating in a co-op, you’re eating with a family that knows you and cares about you and wants to support you.  On top of that, you learn so much about taking care of yourself and others that you’re set for the real world.  I know how to unclog a toilet and cook a simple meal on a budget.  I’ve had the opportunity to be the Theory & History Coordinator for OSCA, a multi-million dollar non-profit organization…  

Yes, off my soap box now, but the long and short of it is, in my opinion that the benefits far outweigh any costs.  And the cool thing about OSCA is that it is not permanent.  If you are having a hard time, you can always switch to CDS.  :)

ANSWERS: Keep Co-op Puzzle No. 2

Congratulations to Rebecca Selin who won the second puzzle challenge!  Her five  answers were:

1) no bike racks
2) no shrubs in front of the porch
3) the sign in front of the yard is different
4) there’s a white sign hanging from the porch as well
5) you can’t see the bike co-op graveyard from the side

Honorable mentions go to Brian Lindsay, Cuy CPH, Weelic Chong, Zettie Shapey, Nora Hayes, and Future Obie Anders for pointing out more changes including:

1) the windoor has curtains!
2) no porch swing :(
3) different blinds in the room
4) different season
5) the rolly table isn’t there anymore
6) the gutters look slightly different
7) the tree in the front was taken away

a snack that will live in infamy…

April 15th meant many things to many Keepers.  To me, it meant that I had only twelve days to finish my thesis.  Today, I only have nine, but that is inconsequential.  For most Keeple, however, it meant that the two words on everyone’s drowsy, sleep-deprived lips were “fire alarm.”  

Indeed, the dreadful sound had invaded many a co-oper’s sleepful reveries at approximately three in the morning.  For those of us who only dine in Keep and did not have the good (mis)fortune to have experienced this phenomenon, I have here compiled eyewitness accounts from that fateful night.  It is my humble desire that this post brings amusement to your lips.  Without further ado…

“I think I was asleep when I was walking down the stairs,” Julie G. informed me as we waited in line for the salad at brunch on Sunday.  ”I thought it was my alarm, and so I tried to turn it off,” Ellie G. chimed in.  

Jane C. was only slightly more coherent than Ellie in the heat of the moment.  When the “horrid, claxon sounds” invaded her sleep, she assumed it was the bike co-op alarm.  ”In a bit of a rage,” she recounts, “I went downstairs to try…and turn it off.”  That’s when she smelled the smoke coming from the kitchen.

Meanwhile, senior Carlos L. was coming home from “way the fuck down South Professor Street” when he noticed flashing lights next to our veritable co-op.  Originally, he figured it was Dan and Devin having a 3am rave in their room.  Upon hearing the siren, he decided to wait outside and greet the “massive outflux of Keepers.”

Waiting outside, Julia S. particularly enjoyed the opportunity to “see who everyone’s sleeping with” and chill on the porch with Safety & Security.

A reader may be wondering, at this point, what on earth could have caused this monstrosity of a fire alarm.  Well, dear reader, I will tell you.  Described at once as a “drunk idiot” and an “inattentive, egg-making moron,” somebody attempted to make eggs in a pot lid and caught the lid on fire.  Just think!  It could have been a rave party, or a rogue alarm.  But no!  Of all things it had to be eggs!

Well, if life is a learning experience, I feel as though we’ve really learned something important here…