Cooperatively Yours
a newsletter for alumni, students, parents and friends.
Cooperatively Yours General Manager George Proper Retires 'Hip' House Honors Co-op Pioneers |
USCA Today
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By Jennifer Heller
Communications Coordinator
Johnny George, President of the Board of the Directors, is heading into his second year as Commander-in-Chief. He hails from Dallas, Texas, and has settled quite comfortably into his two-bedroom Fenwick Apartment, which he says he loves because it is a diverse community and it looks like an Ewok Village. Living in the co-ops has taught him about non-profit management and the cooperative movement in general.
Johnny first moved into the co-ops in 2004, when he began his PhD program in Linguistics at UC Berkeley. He served as Fenwick Board Representative and Vice President of Development and Planning prior to running for President in Fall 2005.
Before coming to Berkeley, he earned a Masters in English Literature from the University of Virginia, taught classes at community college, and English at a nuclear power plant in Japan. While living in Japan, he fell in love with the language and the culture. He is now studying Japanese sign language, and hopes to move back to Japan and teach linguistics in a university after he graduates.
Besides being USCA President, Johnny teaches classes in American Languages for UC Berkeley Summer Sessions and is involved as a graduate research assistant at the Center for Race and Gender. He enjoys outdoor sports and magical realist novels.
According to Johnny, the best thing about living in the co-ops is reconciling the philosophy and idealism about cooperative living with actual day-to-day living and working with people. He says it has been amazing to see the natural dynamics that emerge from sharing common space–both in his Fenwick apartment, and in the apartment complex as a whole. What has been the most educational, however, is sharing the management of the co-ops with the other Board members.
Over the next year, Johnny plans to look closely at the rent structure and food distribution. His goals are to redistribute rent to maximize member services, and increase accessibility and diversity within the co-op system. Ultimately, he hopes to reduce costs or at the very least to cap the rent increases. He notes that this will be a challenge given the USCA’s plans to renovate Casa Zimbabwe and Cloyne Court over the next few years for seismic and accessibility improvements. Johnny says, “I look forward to working with some very inspired students who have been elected to be vice presidents over the next year, and have been hired for the student Central Level positions. Everyone is dedicated to reducing costs and increasing diversity. These are exciting times for the USCA.”
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By Sigolene Ortega
Since the USCA’s inception in the 1930’s, the co-ops’ mission has been to relieve the burden of the cost of higher education for students of all backgrounds. At the heart of our organization is its anti-discrimination practice in housing and educational opportunities for students of different ethnicities, religions and sexual orientations. Co-opers created the Coordinator of Outreach, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination (CODA) to ensure that we are committed to diversity as part of the cooperative ethos. My duties as CODA range from participating in hiring procedures, providing member education on diversity and sexual harassment issues and acting as a University liaison.
I also have the opportunity to reach out to different student populations to raise awareness of the uniqueness of the co-op community. Through our low-cost housing, employment and scholarship opportunities, the co-ops create venues for making higher education attainable.
Coming from a close knit family, I truly value the spirit of collaboration in the co-ops. Most recently, I helped collaborate with co-opers, co-op staff, the Disabled Student Center, the Transfer Student center and other student groups to put on a Twilight BBQ at Rochdale in April. The night was a huge success, with food, music and even a jumpy castle! The barbeque served a dual purpose of bringing co-opers together, and also building a positive image of the co-ops within the community.
Siggy served as CODA for 2005-06. She is a senior earning degrees in Political Economy of Industrial Societies and Public Health. She lives at Fenwick Weavers’ Village.
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By Sonya Tamarchenko
During the weekend of April 8-9, 2006, the USCA had the privilege of hosting WESTCO, the annual general membership meeting of the West Coast members of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation).
The weekend officially began Friday evening with the arrival of 23 co-opers from the Students’ Cooperative Association in Eugene, Oregon (definitely the largest contingent). Overall, the weekend included two dinners, two caucuses, 12 workshops, one bicycle tour of Berkeley, an ice-cream social, and two parties. Whew! The caucuses focused on membership diversity and eco-sustainability, while workshops ranged in content from ‘Vegan Nutrition’ to ‘Stencil and T-Shirt Making.’ By the end of the weekend, I had heard many of our members and guests remarking on how much they had learned about the cooperative movement. While each co-op has its own principles and rituals, we are all, I believe, part of a larger movement for democracy, self-investment, collective ownership, and personal revolution.
Thank you to everyone who participated in WESTCO and made it possible to remind us what cooperation is all about. See you next year!