Michigan Cooperative House

Mich house is the oldest student housing cooperative in the United States. In 1932, Michigan Socialist House was organized by the Socialist Club as a means to provide housing at "actual" cost. This was during The Great Depression, a time when students struggled to pay tuition and rent, often working long hours at low pay at the expense of valuable study time. Sher Quraishi, one of the founding members of Mich house, also led the foundation of the Wolverine Eating co-op in the same year. In 1932, room and board at Mich house was $2 a week. In 1939, house members voted to change the house's name to Michigan Co-operative House, although some members occasionally use the former name to this day.

In 1947, the landlord (possibly speculating on a boom in the student housing market after the end of World War II) would not renew the houses' lease. In response, the ICC purchased the current house on 315 N. State St., which continues the Michigan House tradition. When Mich house was founded, the University bureaucrats found the co-op concept difficult to understand. In contrast to Fraternities and Sororities, which are owned and ultimately controlled by alumni/ae, a co-op is controlled by its members, who make decisions for their own mutual benefit and the benefit of future co-op members. The co-ops posed a challenge to the reigning paradigm of in loco parentis, where the University paternalistically supervises students, even in their home and social lives. University rules required that all unmarried students live under the direct supervision of housemothers. Ruth Buchanan, librarian of the university's Labadie Radical Literature Collection, came to the rescue and offered to serve as a house mother for free. Mich house may have been the first student house where the housemother did not actually live on the premises.

Today, Mich house is known for its rocking parties at least as much as from its members' challenges of University and government policies, a few years ago one member stirred things up by hanging a banner proclaiming "Mich House Rocks Harder" from the large smokestack at the University's Steam Plant. People from Minnie's board here, and with an assortment of a few other boarders, our membership community typically numbers around 45.

Some of our policies include no tobacco smoking in the house, omnivorous and vegetarian options at meals, and five-minute seat reservations. Our house officers include: President, Board Representative, Work Manager, Treasurer, Secretary, Ordering Steward, Kitchen Czar, 2 Indoor Maintenance Managers, Outdoor Maintenance Manager, Sin Steward, and 2 Flight Attendants. The House President and Board Representative are elected by old and new members at the New Members Meeting in April for a year term, but all other officers are elected at the start of every semester and anyone can run (even YOU).

Each resident is required to do 4 hours, and Minnie's members are required to give about 3 hours of work a week to the house. Typical jobs include Dinner Cook; Lunch, Dinner, or Late night dish cleans; bathroom cleans; hall, TV room, living room, pantry/laundry room clean; or various other odd jobs such as guff cook. We must also give 8% of our labor credit hours to the ICC, so you could work in the ICC officer or sit on a committee for your labor credit. At the beginning of each term, we hold "Work Holiday", which is where we spend all day clean, fixing, mopping, scrubbing, vacuuming, partying, and painting to get our house all fixed up.

Charges (what co-opers pay instead of rent) were about $490 for Fall/Winter 07/08 and should be similar in the upcoming years. However, a portion of the budget is decided by the members new and old at the beginning of any particular year so you will have a say in how much your charges are when you move in. Mich house is close to campus and also the vibrant North State street cultural area, with many shops, restaurants, a few bars and clubs, and two independent movie theatres.

If you have any questions or just want to get a feel for the place, email the house President or stop by for dinner (served at 6:00 PM)...we don't always bite people we don't know.

Michigan House Pictures

Our front porch! A great way to soak up the hustle and bustle of the N. State St. crowd.	We keep our living room in great condition! Our members use this room to study, read, socialize, and...	...hold our house meetings. This is an example of a meeting agenda. Every member has one vote to help decide important decisions that need to be made.
This is our dining room and where all our members congregate for dinner. Dinner is usually served at 6pm. Members from Minnie's House next door board at our house and so it's easy for you to get to know a lot of people in just a short amount of time!	Our kitchen comes equipped with a heavy duty dish washer and plenty of space for cooking.	Our stove top also allows us to cook our dinners for large crowds.
Who else do you know has an organge juice dispenser! This machine was bought in 2008 and is in great working condition.	In our basement is where are TV and game room is located.	In the same TV room we have a game room with multiple games for our house members to enjoy.
Our house also comes with a public computer for us to use.	We also have two working cokes machines!	Our pantry is stocked with almost every food item available. Never go hungry again!
Throughout our house are a number beautiful murals. Here is an example of one of them.	A picture of one of our bathrooms.	In our basement is also a washer and dryer set for our members to use.

The Social Side of Michigan House!

Cooperative living isn't all about working together to live in a successful household, it's also about getting to know your housemates and hanging out with them! Here are a sample of some of our social events throughout the year.

This is a picture from our spring 2008 work holiday. For one day every semester, the house gets together and spends the entire day cleaning and maintaining the house.	Though work holidays is a serious time to maintain and improve our house, we also have lots of fun doing it as well!	We'll work on everything from sanding down old wall paint...
...to peeling off tape...	...to fixing our doors...	...and even dry wall repair!
Our house also held a wine and cheese party during the year. Everyone dressed up for the event and we all had a blast!	Another photo of our high-class event!	We also try to organize more unique and themed get-togethers, such as this Secret Smith Party.
...and this 90s hip hop party.	There is always people to hangout with in our home. Our living room is usually our locus of activity!	Whether we hold large parties or smaller in-house events, our members just love to spend time with one another. There may be 19 members that live in our house (plus more from Minnie's next door), but we're a close knit community where everybody feels comfortable being around everybody else. Come check us out!