The Co-op experience turns out smart and venturesome co-opers who move on to various professions and life trajectories.  Yet many of us are inclined to retrace our steps and give back to the community that instilled the conscientious thinking and resourcefulness that made us successful.  The BSC, with the guidance of Jan Stokley, has done an excellent job utilizing the various talents and interests of BSC alumni to great effect.  For example:

Ann Ophera is a CPA based in Oakland who devotes endless (and late) hours to the Finance Committee as a non-voting member.  Ann, a Barringtonian, also helps the BSC analyze relevant financial terms.

Alana Theriault (Castro 1994) opened her home in Berkeley to a gathering of twenty current Castro members and Castro alumni on February 21, 2010.  Current members shared news with alumni about trends and changes at Castro, and were delighted with some of the Castro memorabilia gathered for display by Alumni Association Historian, Candace Martinez. 

ED WAGSTAFF writes about “seeing Mario Savio’s name on the previous year’s house roster, when I was House Manager at Oxford Hall in 1973/74.”

BILL DECK wonders why the BSC has so many Central Level employees these days.  When he moved into the co-ops (Oxford Hall, 1962-66, Cloyne Court, summer of 66, and Ridge Project 1966-67), there were 1100 students, 11 halls and only 4 “adult employees”.  As the CK truck manager, Bill followed Central Kitchen on its move from Oxford Hall to the Ridge Project, when it opened in 1966.  He and the CK cooking manager, GARY FULLER, teamed up as house managers in the new co-op until the House Council got organized and held elections.

Someone recently asked me “Why should I join the Alumni Association? I can contribute to the BSC without joining.” While we certainly welcome donations from non-members, the Alumni Association provides other benefits. We sponsor gatherings of alumni, both small (such as the recent gathering at the home of a Castro alumni) and large (such as our upcoming blowout at the Lawrence Hall of Science).

We also provide support, both financial and personal, to the students – we raise scholarship and capital funds, and we participate as non-voting advisors in student-run committees. We are also developing new tools to help alumni connect with each other.

We are guilty of failing to pay attention!  We have been reading our newspapers and watching our televisions as the State of California’s fiscal problems have reached crisis after crisis.  In November and December, we suddenly realized that the UC system was fiscally compelled to impose massive tuition increases on students, who have been demonstrating on the campuses.
We would be wrong to blame the usual suspects for the University’s fiscal problems.  The Regents, the President, and the UC Administration have made some large and well publicized errors (including excessive salaries and building projects).  Their errors amount to little compared to the decades-long drift in our state’s fiscal policy away from supporting its public university system.

As anyone who has ever washed pots, cleaned bathrooms or managed the work of others knows, it is a significant accomplishment just to keep the Berkeley Student Cooperative running. Each member’s experience is unique, and the twelve hundred students to whom the BSC supplies a quality, affordable housing community each semester may each tell you of a success or a learning opportunity that has not reached my ears. These individual stories create a rich fabric of experience that define our community in the present moment. But it is even more impressive when this large, unwieldy group of disparate individuals acts collectively to ensure the BSC’s success long into the future. We have taken a number of such steps in the course of the past year.