Co-op houses an independent spirit
Dudley alumni visit Harvard for 50th anniversary
Out of Harvard's 6,700 undergraduates, how many do you think would turn down the offer of free maid service?
The answer: 32 members of an off-campus community, who are so committed to their cooking and cleaning chores that, despite the university-ordered visits of two house cleaners, they spend even more time mopping the floors, scrubbing pans, and cleaning countertops.
"We clean it multiple times each day. We're polite and friendly when the housekeepers come over, but all other things being equal, we want to do this stuff ourselves," said Tyler Neill, a senior.
The students who live in the Dudley Co-operative Society, a pair of old Victorians owned by the university a short walk up Massachusetts Avenue from Harvard Yard, have long been known for their radical ways.
The Co-op is celebrating its 50th birthday with an alumni dinner tonight, where former students are sure to reminisce about hosting naked brunches, how they grew a certain smokable plant on the rooftop, or how they helped take over an administrative building in the student strike of 1969.
Back in the '50s, '60s and '70s, students moved into Dudley because it was cheap. Locals and foreigners who could not afford a dorm room could manage the Dudley rent - roughly half the price of a dorm room - thanks to the cooking, cleaning, and shopping they did.
The independent streak and work ethic are still there, as are the cost savings. But now, the students choose the Dudley lifestyle, in large part so as not to be as pampered as their peers.
Dudley members feel more comfortable living in a residential neighborhood, not in the bubble of Harvard Yard, and some play soccer with neighborhood children at a local field. Dudley residents even hosted a block party this year.
"It's just nice to come home and realize that you've got a hot meal that someone actually made," said senior Josh Neff. "People doing things for themselves really builds a sense of community we're all invested in. There's a big difference between living here and living in the large houses - it feels like night and day."
About 98 percent of Harvard's undergraduates live in the school's 12 major dormitories, where students do not have to worry about preparing meals or scrubbing toilets. One semester in a dorm costs $2,928, compared with $1,988 at the co-op; for meal service, dorm residents pay $2,382, while co-op members pay just $675.
Big dorms are not right for everyone, said Tom Dingman, dean of freshmen at Harvard, who has been closely associated with the co-op for more than a decade.
"They don't give you the chance for personal investment that the co-op does. There, you can roll up your sleeves, and dig in."
In the front foyer of the main house, a spreadsheet lists just how many chores each member has done. The system is much like it was decades ago, as each activity gets a point value based on the time, effort, and undesirability involved. Cleaning the bathroom earns 3 points - 5 if there are two showers; doing the dishes is worth 4 points; all the pots after a big dinner, 11.
"There's generally not a feeling of resentment about doing the chores, that 'I'm doing cooking dinner for someone else,' " said Ana Vollmar, a senior. "I don't mind cooking for someone else because I know someone is cleaning my bathroom."
Doing chores has its benefits, said Emily Owens, a junior who enjoys making dinner, even if it means two hours in the kitchen instead of the library.
"It puts you in a different mind-space. It's nice to know you can cook for two hours without having to exercise your brain," said Owens, while baking piles of double-chocolate cookies for a cook-out Wednesday night. "Then when you're done you're [recharged] to study again."
For sure, the system has always had its glitches. "Whoa," said Neill, while surveying the chore spreadsheet last week. "This person owes 60 [points]," or several weeks worth of work. "That's a huge number." The slacker, he said, would get a talking to.
The 200 Dudley alumni expected back for the co-op's anniversary dinner tonight might be surprised at how much the place has changed - and how much it has not. The "Workers of the World, Unite" wall is still there, with Karl Marx's picture and famous - and not so famous - slogans beneath it.
But, now the wall "is a total relic," according to Vollmar. "I don't know when the last time was that someone added to it."
The naked meals that became popular after the mandatory dress code was abandoned still live on, but only about seven current students uphold the tradition.
The bedrooms are still as messy as the kitchen is neat.
And Dudley is still a place where students who feel they do not fit in at Harvard can, in fact, fit in. Vladimir Klimenko, class of 1982, said he gravitated there because the atmosphere was far less competitive than the rest of Harvard.
"Harvard is this big fish bowl with a lot of bright people - and a lot of egos," he said. "The people who went to the co-op I would say were no less driven, but . . . they may be people who went off on their own pursuits. They have their own sense of gratification."
