Berkeley Student Cooperative - History

History

The University of California Students' Cooperative Association (UCSCA) was founded in 1933 to meet the need for affordable student housing during the Great Depression. Berkeley YMCA director Harry Kingman inspired 14 students to start the first housing cooperative in Berkeley, doing workshifts in exchange for lower rent. In the fall of 1933 the students leased Barrington Hall which housed 48 students. Sherman Hall, Sheridan Hall, and Euclid Hall all opened during this era, as well as Stebbins Hall, the first women's co-op.

After World War II the UCSCA purchased Ridge House and Cloyne Court Hotel to meet the demand from the increase in the student population caused by the GI Bill. Due to changes in state law, the organization changed its name to the University Students' Cooperative Association (USCA). In the 1960s the co-op opened one of the first co-ed student housing projects in the nation, Ridge Project, later renamed Casa Zimbabwe in the 1980s. The 1960s and 1970s saw a decline in the popularity of the Greek System in Berkeley, which allowed the USCA to purchase defunct sororities which became Davis House, Andres Castro Arms, and Wolf House.

The 1970s saw the opening of Lothlorien Hall, a vegetarian theme house, and Kingman Hall, both of which formerly belonged to small religious organizations (Lothlorien belonging to the One World Family and Kingman Hall to the Berkeley Living Love Center). This decade also saw the construction and opening of the Rochdale Village Apartments, one of BSC's three apartment facilities. The others are Fenwick Weaver's Village and the Northside Apartments. BSC also owns two graduate and re-entry student houses, The Convent and Hillegass/Parker House, formerly Le Chateau.

In 1990, the members of the USCA voted to close Barrington Hall, its largest co-op, in reaction to complaints from neighbors and problems with the City. The decade also saw the opening of two new theme houses: the African American Theme House, opened in response to the University's closing of all of its theme houses; and, in 1999, Oscar Wilde House. Oscar Wilde House is a former fraternity house, which the USCA was able to buy due to the continuing decline in the popularity of the Greek system in Berkeley.

In 2007, to make itself easier to find online, and to reflect a membership that now also includes community college students, the organization changed its name to the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC).