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Berkeley -- Barrington news, anyone?

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David M Watt

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Nov 18, 1989, 10:34:58 PM11/18/89
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The latest word off the grapevine is that after yet another LSD party,
a rape, and several house members disrobing in front of the co-op board,
the USCA finally voted in a referendum of all members to close Barrington
Hall. Is there anyone from Berkeley out there who is willing to provide
details instead of rumors? What will become of the place? Are they going
to keep the murals?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

- Dave Watt
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"The opposite of a profound truth can also be a profound truth."
- Niels Bohr
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tim...@ernie.berkeley.edu

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Nov 19, 1989, 3:27:24 PM11/19/89
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In article <1989Nov19.0...@athena.mit.edu> dmw...@athena.mit.edu (David M Watt) writes:
|The latest word off the grapevine is that after yet another LSD party,
|a rape, and several house members disrobing in front of the co-op board,
|the USCA finally voted in a referendum of all members to close Barrington
|Hall. Is there anyone from Berkeley out there who is willing to provide
|details instead of rumors?

Background: for the last few years, the USCA has been engaged in
an expensive lawsuit filed by neighbors of Barrington Hall who
allege that events at Barrington have been a nuisance to them and
have lowered the value of their property.

There was a party in which some members of Barrington (who have since
been evicted by the USCA) distributed illegal drugs.

Then some members gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on
the statement "Barrington shall be closed at the end of fall 1989.
No member who has lived in Barrington shall live there in the future.
The future dispostion of Barrington shall be up to the Board of
Directors." In response, some members of Barrington circulated
a counter petition "Barrington shall remain open under the conditions
of the revised probation." (wording not exact, but that was the
spirit of the referenda). Note that Barrington had been on
probation since 1987, but the new probation was slightly stricter,
mainly in that explicit penalties for violations were delineated.

A number of forums were held on the issue and large amounts of
written information, including a pro/con packet, was sent to
every one of the 1400 members of the USCA.

Voting was held over a period of three days. Sealed ballot boxes
were delivered to houses and members had to sign to receive a
ballot and sign again to put one into the box. A house ballot
box was invalidated if it was delivered damaged or if the number of
ballots in there did not match the number of signatures. Both
referenda were placed on the same ballot; if both passed, the
one with more yes votes would prevail.

The referendum to close Barrington passed by a vote of 695 to 485.
The referendum to keep Barrington open with probation failed.
One small house's ballot box was delivered damaged, but the number
of voters there would not have changed the outcome.

On the day the referendum vote was counted and announced, there
was a Board meeting. By coincidence this meeting had been
scheduled at Barrington at the beginning of the semester (Board
meetings rotate through different houses). This is when the
incident of Barrington members disrobing in front of the Board
happened.

All Barrington members are guaranteed entry into other houses
of the USCA. However, there will probably be very few new
members since the expected number of Barrington members staying
in the USCA is about the same as the expected number of vacancies
in the USCA.

| What will become of the place?

The future use of Barrington is up to the Board. It is very
unlikely that Barrington will reopen for spring 1990. The
following options are being considered:

1. married / family / domestic partner housing.
2. graduate student housing.
3. regular house (but no previous Barringtonion can live there).
4. "entry-level" house (primarily new members, no member can
stay for more than a year)
5. sell to Barrington (as a co-op independent of the USCA)
6. sell to someone else.

| Are they going
|to keep the murals?

Maybe. Depends on what scale of renovations occur and how one
distinguishes between a "mural" and "graffiti".

Jamie Andrews

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Nov 21, 1989, 5:44:29 AM11/21/89
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What does this have to do with co-ops? Is/was Barrington
a co-op? Were other Berkeley student houses co-ops? Was the
behaviour at Barrington supposedly directly linked to the fact
that it was a co-op? (Frankly, I would find this hard to
believe, since most of the cooperative housing I've observed
consists of sour-faced old '60s anarchists who make up lists of
who is to cut the grass on which hour of what day... not that
that means I think they're not a good idea!)

--Jamie.
j...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk
"Let the flesh instruct the mind"

tim...@ernie.berkeley.edu

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Nov 22, 1989, 1:16:23 PM11/22/89
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In article <11...@castle.ed.ac.uk> j...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Jamie Andrews) writes:
|
| What does this have to do with co-ops? Is/was Barrington
|a co-op? Were other Berkeley student houses co-ops?

Barrington is a 181 capacity student housing co-op that is
part of the University Students Cooperative Association in
Berkeley. The entire USCA consists of 17(?) houses with
about 1400 members. Recently, the members of the USCA
voted in a referendum to close Barrington at the end of this
fall semester.

Brian Rice

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Nov 27, 1989, 6:14:42 PM11/27/89
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In article <11...@castle.ed.ac.uk> j...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Jamie Andrews) writes:
> What does this have to do with co-ops? Is/was Barrington
>a co-op? Were other Berkeley student houses co-ops?

Berkeley co-ops are fairly legendary, at least within the North American
student co-op scene. The latest amusing disaster from Barrington was
a regular topic of conversation at my student co-ops (at Oberlin College).

>Was the
>behaviour at Barrington supposedly directly linked to the fact
>that it was a co-op?

Now, that is a dangerous question. Regardless of whether the Rochdale
Principles require drug-induced riot :-), I think it should be clear that,
because co-ops are the exception rather than the norm, co-ops in many
instances suffer from being expected to conform to unreasonably exalted
standards. (I'm not accusing you, Jamie, of making this mistake; but
it has been made by many otherwise entirely reasonable people.)

My Oberlin experience was that co-op-based anti-social and destructive
behavior was generally comparable in severity to that in other housing
arrangements, though generally less run-of-the-mill in nature.

(I don't mean by my jovial tone to make light of any truly destructive
behavior, particularly the rape reported by the original poster [by the
way, I hadn't heard about that--not that I feel I have some right to].)

>(Frankly, I would find this hard to
>believe, since most of the cooperative housing I've observed
>consists of sour-faced old '60s anarchists who make up lists of
>who is to cut the grass on which hour of what day.

Workcharts are a time-honored system of apportioning duties; since
they're usually about 80% obeyed (more or less, depending on co-op
morale), there must not be too many TRUE anarchists about. Further-
more, sixties schmixties. "'60's" as an adjective is a Banned Word
of the Nineties.
Brian Rice ri...@dg-rtp.dg.com (919) 248-6328
DG/UX Product Assurance Engineering
Data General Corp., Research Triangle Park, N.C.
"My other car is an AViiON."

Jym Dyer

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Nov 28, 1989, 11:51:02 AM11/28/89
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I hadn't heard about any rapes either. There's a pretty steady
stream of news items about frat-related rapes in Berkeley, but
not about any in Barrington.

Indeed, a local anarchist newspaper, _Slingshot_, just published
an issue featuring articles on rape and sexism. It also had
stories on Barrington, but none mentioned rape.

(The stories on Barrington, by the way, state that the hard drug
problem at Barrington occurred a few years back, and has been
much improved in recent years.)
::::.-----.:::::<_Jym_>:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::/ | \::::.-----.::::::::::::::::::::::::: Jym Dyer ::::::::
::/ | \::/ o o \::::::: j...@anableps.berkeley.edu ::::::::
::\ /|\ /::\ \___/ /::::::::: Berserkeley, California ::::::::
:::\ / | \ /::::`-----':::::::::::: Dilute! Dilute! O.K.! ::::::::
::::`-----':::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

tim...@ernie.berkeley.edu

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Nov 28, 1989, 2:17:13 PM11/28/89
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In article <JYM.89No...@anableps.berkeley.edu> j...@anableps.berkeley.edu (Jym Dyer) writes:
|I hadn't heard about any rapes either. There's a pretty steady
| stream of news items about frat-related rapes in Berkeley, but
| not about any in Barrington.

The "rape at Barrington" did not occur at Barrington. It occurred
at a different co-op after the alleged participants had allegedly
been to a Barrington party.



|Indeed, a local anarchist newspaper, _Slingshot_, just published
| an issue featuring articles on rape and sexism. It also had
| stories on Barrington, but none mentioned rape.

|(The stories on Barrington, by the way, state that the hard drug
| problem at Barrington occurred a few years back, and has been
| much improved in recent years.)

_Slingshot_ is very pro-Barrington (presumably because many of
its editors/writers live there), so it is unlikely to give
Barrington any kind of bad publicity.

On the other hand, the _Daily_Cal_ seems to thrive on Barrington
sensationalism, including linking the rape case to Barrington.
They average about 2-3 Barrington articles each week, mostly on
the front page (and not always very accurate).

Piper Keairnes

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Nov 28, 1989, 5:31:57 PM11/28/89
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I've been watching this forum for a while and still have no idea what
the general purpose is....

What I'd like to ask is for people in this group that are currently
computer science co-ops to send me a small parcel of mail detailing

1) the type of work you do
2) do you like it?
3) where are you located?
4) what's your approx. salary?
5) what are your dislikes/likes?
6) why did you choose co-op over internships?

Please forgive me if this is an inappropriate place...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/ Piper Keairnes \/ Purdue University Computing Center \/
/\ a...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu /\ General Consultant/ Mac Enthusiast /\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Jason Levitt

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Dec 4, 1989, 1:29:45 PM12/4/89
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In article <54...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> a...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Piper

Keairnes) writes:
>
> I've been watching this forum for a while and still have no idea what
>the general purpose is....
>
> What I'd like to ask is for people in this group that are currently
>computer science co-ops to send me a small parcel of mail detailing
>
> ......[the rest deleted]......

This posting doesn't surprise me at all. Indiana has no housing
co-operatives or youth hostels. Indiana University does have a nice
food co-operative [Bloomingfoods]. It's a shame...

--Jason
-----

Jason Levitt P.O. Box 49860 Austin, Texas 78765 (512) 459-0055
Internet: ja...@cs.utexas.edu | "The most effective debugging tool is
UUCP : cs.utexas.edu!hackbox!jason | still careful thought, coupled with
BIX : jlevitt | judiciously placed print statements."
| -Brian Kernighan [1978]

Steve Bloch

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Dec 4, 1989, 11:30:56 PM12/4/89
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a...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Piper Keairnes) writes:
>
> I've been watching this forum for a while and still have no idea what
>the general purpose is....
>
> What I'd like to ask is for people in this group that are currently
>computer science co-ops to ...

Aha! What we have here is two radically different meanings of the word
"co-op". Being personally acquainted with both, I'll try to explain.
What Piper's talking about is the institution of alternating semesters
between "real world" work and school. This system, I gather, was
mandatory when my parents were at Antioch, and I did it voluntarily at
Virginia Tech. (Yes, I was in CS, although we also had lots of co-op
students in engineering, business, nutrition science, agricultural
economics...the works). What (I believe) everybody else is talking
about are co-operatively organized businesses, which may or may not be
for-profit, may or may not be connected with a school, and may or may
not have any unifying political views. At Virginia Tech, "co-op"
meant the former, and nobody would have considered the latter. Here
at UCSD it's the other way around.

"The above opinions are my own. But that's just my opinion."
Stephen Bloch
bloch%c...@ucsd.edu

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