Harkness House

Harkness Hall — often just shortened to Hark — is one of the most centrally located housing & dining co-ops on the Oberlin College campus. Harkness, which opened initially in 1950 as a women's dorm and became the fourth OSCA co-op in September 1967, is located just across the street from Dascomb Hall and King Building, and shares a lawn with two dorms, as well as Third World Co-op, and the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. Because of its location, many housing and dining members can be found in the building at all times of day (including the few 3 AM studiers). Hark is the only co-op with a ramp and an elevator. For questions about accessibility in co-ops, reach out to access@osca.coop. 

Harkness houses over 50 members, as well as a large paper-mache shark as a mascot. As the largest housing co-op, it’s home to many events, from live basement concerts to post-Pizza Night dance parties to craft nights to folk jams. There's even a Jellyfish Parade celebrating each full moon! Harkness, a historically vegetarian co-op with a large vegan community, also has over 100 total dining members. The Harkness dining room floor tiles proudly display the OSCA logo, a symbol of pride (and common tattoo) for many OSCAns.

Often described as the “People’s Co-op,” Harkness has a close-knit community known for its artsy members and hippie legacy (reinforced, in part, by a liberal nudity policy). Harkies are also often experimental and revolutionary-minded, which has led to diverse and unique policies over the years...some more successful than others. In 1979, Hark created the Contraceptive Co-op, which eventually morphed into Oberlin College's Sexual Information Center. Also in 1979, Harkness became the first OSCA co-op to use consensus, a decision process that soon spread throughout OSCA. The very next year, they voted for the first time to use anarchy as a system of governance (a decidedly less successful venture that ended soon after it began). In the mid-90s, Harkness became the first OSCA co-op to have an elected head cook system, which is now the norm across co-ops.

A “reimagination committee” in 2024 resulted in the creation of many new positions, including but not limited to Sauce Maker, Stock Maker, Iced Tea Maker, Institutional Resource Creator, and the ability to design your own custom way of giving back to the co-op. Hark is the home of OSCA breakfast, which serves all of OSCA every weekday morning. Special meals in Harkness tend to be more extravagant and wackier-themed than those of other co-ops, with a strong dress-up tradition. On sunny days, many members eat meals outside in “Harkness Bowl”, the lawn in front of Harkness. Hark is an environment that fosters and encourages dialogue at all times, even when not in formal discussion.