OSCA plans to divide into two corporations

One part would become nonprofit in status

The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) is in the process of dividing into two separate corporations. The split will allow the groups to give out scholarships, buy more land in town, and to rent housing to and serve non-Oberlin students.

The two new corporations are titled OSCA and OSCA Properties. After approval from the Internal Revenue Service, OSCA Properties, under OSCA control, will take control of Fuller and Bliss. OSCA will continue to run the on-campus housing and dining cooperatives.

OSCA Properties will do these things through its different non-profit status. According to OSCA Treasurer and sophomore Dan Spalding, there will be no property tax on the off-campus houses. OSCA will have control over OSCA Properties. Spalding said, "OSCA Properties is run by the same people, the only difference is accounting."

Currently, OSCA has passed the proposal and is waiting for approval from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The OSCA board expects the IRS to reject the plan the first time.

"The IRS is pretty hard-assed about it. They make sure we want the non-profit status and make us work for it," said junior Jenn Carter, OSCA president and junior.

Since the North American Student Cooperative Organization has a structure like that proposed for OSCA, they expect to be approved after the appeal. Spalding believes the new structure should be in place by next school year.

"OSCA is now strategically well-placed to buy a lot of property over the next twenty years," said former board member senior Joel Whitaker. He added, "All you need is ten houses and you can have a significant impact on pushing landlords to lower prices and better quality."

Carter agreed with this prediction. "We are hoping to buy more properties in the long, long range to make housing more affordable." OSCA has been in contact with the city's Committee on Affordable Housing and may in the future lease to non-students.

Currently, OSCA's charter prohibits non-student tenants. Carter judged non-student tenants as a "very, very long-term" goal and admitted that OSCA "hasn't figured out how this would work."

If the division is approved, OSCA Properties could give scholarships. OSCA's current tax status prohibits it from granting scholarships now. According to Carter, "the scholarships would go to financially-needy OSCA students to help pay for their board costs."

Scholarships from OSCA Properties would be classified as outside scholarships by the Financial Aid Office which would ultimately affect a student's loans. Financial Aid decreases student loans by the amount of an outside scholarship.

The final details of this scholarships, as well as plans for future properties and tenant leases have yet to be decided. According to Spalding, the board is not sure of everything in the future, but "there will be a lot of input from all-OSCA" in all of these decisions.