Harkventures

At the beginning of this semester, I joined Harkness Co-op—more affectionately, just Hark—as a dining member. Founded in 1967, Hark is currently the largest of 6 co-ops in the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA, pronounced like “oscar” with a British accent). OSCA is one of the biggest student-run cooperative systems in North America, and it feeds over 300 Oberlin students every day. There are also 4 housing co-ops that each correspond to a dining co-op. Although OSCA members (or OSCAns) only make up about 10% of Oberlin’s student body, I would say that OSCA is the heart of Oberlin’s community.

But I’m not here to try to convince you of OSCA’s awesomeness right now! Instead, I’m here to provide a cute little catalog of all the wacky things I’ve gotten up to in Hark this first semester. You can decide for yourself if it sounds like fun:

Dancing in the rain: Hark tradition states that every time it rains (especially at night), everyone hanging out in the lounge must go out and frolick in Harkness Bowl. The first time this happened was around 11pm on a Friday in mid-September, and it was so nice to dance in the rain after a few long weeks of classes. 

Cooking dinner for over 100 people: A few weeks into the school year, me and two of my friends signed up to cook dinner for our co-op. We went in totally blind with no meal prep, but it came out soo yummy and I was so proud of us!

Food Space 201: During lunch one day, one of our members gave a mini-lecture about a dream that he had, involving detailed formulas about the breakdown of ingredients on a plate and the different ways to add or multiply sauce, complete with diagrams. It was awesome.

Special meals: Every Saturday at dinner, the meal has a special theme or activity. Highlights from this semester include Buffy the Vampire Meal, The Darkness in Harkness Meal, Twisters Meal, Snail Meal, and Dress as Each Other Meal.

Trick-or-treating: During Halloweekend, all of the members of Hark dressed up and put special treats outside their doors. We then proceeded to parade the hallways to try all the concoctions and have a generally great time. It was awesome!

Random interviews: One of my fellow Harkies has taken to dragging other co-opers (consensually of course) to miscellaneous places in Hark to chat about their lives. Interview topics have ranged from favorite type of protein to the ethos of the cooperative spirit, and locations so far have included various closets in the basement as well as standing barefoot in the snow at 1 am! 

Hark Mitzvah: While Hark is not known for throwing particularly good parties, this one in particular was among my favorites. OSCA—and Oberlin in general—has a pretty high population of Jewish students, and we thought it would be fun to have a throwback party to all the b’nai mitzvah we attended as thirteen-year-olds. Highlights included 2015 pop hits, dancing the hora, and fresh-baked challah.

Sledding: Just last week, I was walking past Hark back to my dorm when I saw a large group of people leaving the building carrying pieces of cardboard and plastic. Straying from my commitment to go to bed on time—as I often do nowadays—I found myself following them to north campus (where Mount Oberlin is located) and having a grand old time sledding down the only hill on campus.

Finals bonfire: Last night, a large group of Harkies gathered in Tappan Square to take a break from finals and celebrate the end of the semester. It was well below freezing, and it took us a few tries to get the fire started with all the snow on the ground, but we eventually got nice and warm. It was a lovely way to close out the semester!

Okay, I’m certain there are things I’ve forgotten... But this feels like a pretty good summary! We’ve also had our fair share of kitchen raves, movie nights, tea parties, and—as is traditional for Hark—a few heated discussions about policy.

Obviously, the main reason I joined Hark is the food (which I have included evidence of to the left) but I have been so overwhelmed with gratitude for the community I have found here as well. In fact, I’ve felt so at home in Hark that I am planning to move in next semester! If you’re ever nearby, feel free to stop in for a meal. We’d love to have you <3