OSCA pushing for fulfillment of contract

Since Asia House co-op opened its doors in February 1996, food spoilage has cost the co-op over $2,000 every semester. The Hobart mixer the co-op was provided with by the College lacks attachments, so Asia House members travel to nearby co-ops to grate cheese and chop vegetables.

Though the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) has attempted to get the College to provide Asia House with a working mixer, including attachments, and an industrial refrigerator, for a year, it has met with little success until just this week.

A new refrigerator will solve the food spoilage problem, though attachments for the mixer have not been purchased.

Senior Devin Theriot-Orr, organizational senator, met with President Nancy Dye, OSCA's adviser, on Wednesday to discuss Asia House's need for a refrigerator. Dye said she thought everything had been worked out a year ago. "My impression was that the matter was taken care of a long time ago," Dye said. "It recently surfaced again."

"The bottom line," Dye said, "is that Asia House co-op will get the refrigerator it needs."

OSCA has weekly meetings with Residential Life and Services. According to OSCA's rent contract, the College is supposed to supply OSCA with capital equipment. The contract states that the College will provide for "major repairs and scheduled upgrades and renovation on an equal basis with other facilities." According to OSCA officers, the College's failure to provide the Asia House refrigerator is a violation of the rent contract.

"As part of the contract the College keeps the facilities up to the level of College dorms," said first-year Ian Macdonald, OSCA Operations Manager. "It doesn't always happen."

When Asia House co-op opened with 80 members, it was supplied with a small walk-in refrigerator that lacked shelving. Because boxes of produce sit on the floor next to the overcrowded walk-in, food spoilage becomes a problem. It also lacked an industrial mixer.

In March 1996, the College provided Asia House with a used industrial two-door refrigerator, but the refrigerator did not work. A domestic sized refrigerator was also provided, but this unit could only store two boxes of produce. In response to a work order Asia House filed, the industrial refrigerator was fixed. However, the co-op still does not have as much space as other co-ops for food, and food spoilage is still a problem.

In September 1996, the College provided Asia House with a small industrial mixer, but it lacked attachments. Without attachments, the equipment is useless. A month later the industrial refrigerator broke and was gone for 10 days for repair. Though the OSCA Operations Managers have continued to discuss these problems with the College nothing was done, and a letter is sent to Vice President for Operations Donna Raynsford. Raynsford forwarded the letters to Residential Life and Services.

In November, OSCA located the refrigerator it needs, but McNish tells OSCA that the College does not have the funding to purchase the refrigerator. Though the College provided Asia House with a second industrial mixer there were no grating, mixing or whisking attachments for it.

McNish did not return calls throughout the week.

This semester, the domestic refrigerators provided by the College have broken three times. The walk-in has broken once. As a result, food has continued to spoil.

Dye said, "The College provided a refrigerator. It was not the right refrigerator." She said she doesn't think the College has always understood what the specific needs of OSCA are. "The specific needs of co-ops are different from CDS. They need to be talked about and understood mutually," Dye said.

The Asia House refrigerator is the most recent - and some members of OSCA might say the most frustrating - example of the struggle to get broken equipment repaired.

Theriot-Orr called it the "paradigm case." He said he took a tape measure and measured the amount of usable refrigerator space members of Asia House have compared to the rest of OSCA. While the rest of OSCA membership has 2 cubic feet of refrigerator space, members of Asia House have about .67 cubic feet. "It's been very frustrating," Theriot-Orr said. "All I want is a kitchen that's functional."

Other examples of old, nonfunctional equipment were provided by OSCA. In Tank half the ovens work. Tank and Harkness have no kind of working freezer, which is big problem for Tank which serves meat. Many dishwashers are not up to the temperatures they are supposed to be at.

OSCA president Jenn Carter, a junior, said it's difficult for those unaffiliated with OSCA to realize what a big problem it is when kitchen equipment doesn't work. "For us, day-to-day, we do these kinds of things, but people in Residential Life have no experience with capital equipment. They honestly don't know."

Carter also said she doesn't know if the College has the money needed to cover OSCA's capital equipment expenses.

"I'm sure budgets are tight," Macdonald said, but also pointed to how much money - nearly a million dollars - that OSCA pays the College each year to maintain the rent contract.

"In general," Macdonald said, "kitchen co-ops tend to be in a state of disrepair."

"There are maintenance problems all over OSCA," Theriot-Orr said.

Dye said she doesn't think the College has always understood what the specific needs of OSCA are. "The specific needs of co-ops are different from CDS. They need to be talked about and understood mutually," Dye said.

Theriot-Orr and Macdonald said that sometimes, when filing work orders, the chains of communication break down and the order is not completed.

The language of the rent-contract, when it was negotiated in 1995, was intentionally left vague, said former OSCA president Hilary Greer, who helped negotiate the contract. When the contract was negotiated, a new dean was on the way. Leaving the language vague gave the College and OSCA room to develop their relationship. "The whole contract was negotiated when we had no idea what the relationship of OSCA and Residential Life would be a year later." She said no one who negotiated the contract predicted that Residential Life would be asked to trim $600,000 from its budget.

The contract is renegotiated next spring. Theriot-Orr said he thinks a new contract should include statements of what equipment the College should provide, a definition of how clean is clean and recognition of OSCA's unique nature. Theriot-Orr said comparisons to CDS should be removed from the contract and OSCA should be "viewed on its own terms."

Dye said, "It seems to me we can do better. I think the obligation of the College is clear."

Spoiling away: The refrigerator in Asia House Co-op continues to be the reason for food spoilage at the co-op. (photo by John Matney)