Accessibility &
Anti-Oppression Policies

That all OSCA entrance applications, including Winter Term, have the following:

• A link (or url, in the case of paper applications) to OSCA’s accessibility policies and the contact information of the current Accessibility Committee Coordinators; AND

• A box to check that reads:

I would like to be contacted by the Accessibility Committee Coordinator for information about OSCA’s policies regarding accommodations for the following: members with disabilities, members seeking alternative eating arrangements, need based singles, and persons with financial need.

Note: Only OSCA Officers and Employees responsible for maintaining the Wait List and the OSCA Accessibility Committee Coordinators will have access to the names of the persons who check this box. By choosing not to check this box, you are not excluded from receiving potential accommodations at any point during your membership in OSCA. Once in OSCA, all members will receive information regarding OSCA’s accessibility policies. This information is protected by OSCA’s Confidentiality Policy.

• Section 1 of the OSCA Bylaws states “... voluntary membership without artificial restriction. This includes restrictions against any race, sexual orientation, religious or political belief, gender or social position.” OSCA interprets this statement to include all-gender rooming options. All-gender rooms will not be assigned except upon request.

• Any student may elect to become an OSCA housing member without registering as a dining member, in accordance with OSCA’s Housing-Only Members Policy.

(a) OSCA shall allocate funds during the annual budget process towards the subsidy of members attending conferences. No individual member shall receive more than $100 of subsidy unless they are applying for a subsidy to attend the NASCO Institute Conference, in which case the maximum subsidy shall be equal the entire cost of the NASCO conference fee. An individual member applying for a conference subsidy may receive less than the maximum amount. Applicants for whom paying for subsidies is inaccessible are encouraged to check a checkbox on the application to cover the standard $35 subsidy. This will let the committee members know to consider full subsidies for all applicants at the discretion of Conference Subsidy Committee and as the budget allows.

(b) Allocation of conference subsidies will be handled by the Conference Subsidy Committee, an open ad-hoc committee consisting of the members of the Finance Committee, at least one (1) All-OSCA Programming & History Coordinator, and at least one (1) Accessibility Committee Coordinator. The dining treasurers will serve as the representatives from each individual co-op. The OSCA Treasurer will chair the committee. The Finance Committee, along with the Accessibility Coordinator and Programming & History Coordinator, will act as the Conference Subsidy Committee as needed to allocate conference subsidies.

(c) The following are structure and guidelines for funding members who wish to attend conferences with the Conference Subsidy Fund:

(1) Any requests for conference subsidy funds should go first to the Conference Subsidy Committee, which must include at least one representative from each co-op. This committee will gather information from the applicants about the conference itself as well as their reasons for attending. The committee will also be responsible for researching the conference on its own. Conference Subsidy Committee members applying for funds will not be a part of the decision on whether to allocate funds.

(2) In the event that OSCA agrees to prepay for a conference for a member and that the member, barring a family emergency or other circumstance deemed an acceptable excuse by the Conference Subsidy Committee, fails to attend the conference, said member will be responsible to OSCA for all prepaid expenses.

(3) Conference Subsidy funds will be allocated only towards conferences that are specifically relevant to the OSCA community.

(4) OSCA members should articulate how they will stand out against oppression if going to a conference deemed oppressive in nature.

(5) Sending members to conferences is one of the main ways that OSCA enacts the principle of Cooperation Among Cooperatives. OSCA is able to allocate money to conference subsidies on the grounds that conference attendees will bring back their learning to benefit OSCA. Accordingly, all conference subsidy recipients are required to submit an article to the monthly OSCA publication to share the relevant information they have learned [minimum 400 words].

• The OSCA Accessibility is a standing and chartered committee of the Board.

• Both Accessibility Committee Coordinators chair the committee, and the following positions sit on the committee: the OSCA Treasurer, Membership Director, President, and Education Coordinator.

• The following positions sit on the committee as needed: OSCA/College Liason, Housing Coordinator, OSCA Foundation Treasurer, and SHILs

That OSCA refund members for meals that they cannot eat while fasting for the month of Ramadan. The Operations Managers should keep track of when Ramadan is coming and have the DLECs announce two (2) weeks prior to its onset that refunds are available to fasting students. They should make sure that all co-ops are notified. Refunds will be for food costs of meals missed and will come out of the individual co-op’s budgets. Members will receive refunds for the number of meals missed up to one-third (1⁄3) of a month’s bill. The members requesting refunds will need to talk with the Treasurer directly to ascertain the exact amount of the refund.

• That all housing applications include two checkboxes that read as follows:

  1. 1. "I am comfortable with any roommate, regardless of assigned sex or gender identity."

     2. "I would like to live with someone who is comfortable with any roommate, regardless of assigned sex or gender identity."

• Checking the box does not constitute consent to an assignment with a person of a different gender identity. OSCA still obtains agreement from all parties involved before assigning roommates of different gender identities.

• The scholarship fund offers low-income students financial assistance in paying for their OSCA board bills. Scholarships cover $500 or $1,000 of the semester's OSCA board bill, depending on demonstrated financial need.

• In order to determine need, students applying for scholarships must submit their Oberlin financial aid award letter, a Student Aid Report (SAR), or an International student financial aid application (instead of SAR if the student is an international student).

• Representatives of the committee include the OSCA Treasurer, the OSCA Foundation Treasurer, the Treasurer of each dining co-op, the Accessibility Committee Coordinators, ad-hoc Board reps, and any other interested OSCA members.

• Due to the sensitive nature of the information the committee deals with, only members of the committee who have gone through all the training regarding how to determine need and ethical issues will be allowed to examine the Scholarship applications.

This policy is intended to make OSCA more accessible to persons with disabilities through 1) membership accessibility (for OSCA housing and dining), 2) accessibility once in a co-op, and 3) education about disabilities. It is assumed that, beyond this policy, the community will continue to increase OSCA’s accessibility to individuals with disabilities (i.e., wheelchair accessibility).

(a) Membership

(1) That students with disabilities:

i. Will receive a lottery number and follow regular Wait List procedures until they become one of the members of OSCA. At any time, a student can self-identify as disabled by contacting the Accessibility Committee Coordinator or an Accessibility Committee Representative in their co-op to receive possible accommodations.

ii. Once in OSCA, a member with a disability may request an accommodation and be able to receive priority placement from the Wait List into another co-op depending on their individual needs, except for Third World Co-op and Third World Social Justice Co-op, which have separate application processes. Members may elect to become an OSCA housing member without registering as a dining member, in accordance with OSCA’s Housing-Only Members Policy (4.5.11).

iii. In order to receive priority placement from the Wait List into another co-op, the member requesting an accommodation must communicate with the Accessibility Committee Coordinator(s) to determine the best accommodation for their individual needs.

iv. Dining-only members requesting accommodations will not be able to receive priority placement from the Wait List to live in a co-op. Only members already living in a co-op can receive priority placement from the Wait List to live in another co-op.

v. Depending on individual needs, a member living in a co-op can request to dine in another co-op, while remaining a resident of their current co-op, or live in another co-op, while continuing to dine in their current co-op.

(b) Implemented Action within the Co-op

(1) Work chart flexibility for persons with disabilities:

i. Assignment of co-op job: Since co-op members’ disabilities vary in degree and type, it is important that there be flexibility in job choice. For example, committee work could be substituted for cooking or crew (it is suggested that although OSCA status quo is that all members do a crew, perhaps some disabled persons may be exempt from crew and do other work instead).

ii. Amount of time: If a disability constrains an individual to do less than the status quo number of co-op hours, then this will be taken into account.

(2) Implementation

i. The Accessibility Committee Rep of each co-op and/or the Accessibility Committee Coordinator(s) will be an advocate for self-identified disabled persons within the co-op. They are responsible for distributing and explaining the policy to the Work Chart/Missed Job Coordinator each semester and acting as a liaison when needed. It is expected that the Accessibility Committee Rep and the Work Chart/Missed Job Coordinator will maintain an appropriate level of sensitivity and confidentiality when working with members who self-identity as disabled. The Accessibility Committee Coordinators and/or Work Chart Coordinator may add additional spots or hours to the respective co-op’s work chart for jobs that are more accessible to the individual. If an Accessibility Committee Rep is not elected within a coop, the Accessibility Committee Coordinator will act as the advocate for the self-identified disabled person.

(c) Education

(1) Within the co-op

i. At the beginning of each semester, before the job lottery, the Accessibility Rep of each co-op should present and facilitate a discussion on the policy in order to inform its members of the issues of disabilities effecting OSCA.

(2) Campus-wide awareness

i. Once in OSCA, all members will receive information regarding OSCA’s accessibility policies, including potential accommodations for self-identified disabled members, and a personalized letter from the current Accessibility Committee Coordinators explaining the policies and providing contact information.

ii. The Accessibility Committee will make an effort each semester to communicate with the College’s Office of Disability Services and inform the wider Oberlin community about its accessibility policies regarding accommodations for students with disabilities.

(a) That every member of OSCA be required to attend a Privilege and Oppression training at least once every semester they are in OSCA. These trainings will be made accessible to all OSCA members and the Oberlin community more broadly, and will be coordinated by the All-OSCA Accessibility Committee Coordinators with help from the All-OSCA Programming & History Coordinators. The Accessibility Committee Coordinators will log the attendance for these meetings. The All-OSCA Accessibility Committee Coordinators should be aware of the time of the academic year when scheduling the training.

(b) Any OSCA member who does not attend these trainings and makes no attempt to contact the Programming & History Coordinators and/or Accessibility Committee Coordinators will receive at least one Missed-Job. Additional Missed-Jobs may be given at the discretion of each co-op. This Missed-Job can only be made up by attending a commensurate training offered by OSCA or another organization, as decided by the Accessibility Committee Coordinators. Accessibility Committee Coordinators will work to provide trainings that work for every member’s schedule.

(a) Overview

(1) OSCA has 18 single rooms (7 in Keep, 11 in Tank), excluding rooms which are traditionally used for HLECs and as emergency singles. OSCA will provide priority housing for single rooms within OSCA housing spaces to Housing Members with self-identified need. Because there are a limited number of single rooms, it is not guaranteed that everyone with a self-identified need will be granted a single room.

(2) As All-OSCA Staff are not qualified to make determinations about whether someone should receive accommodations, per Uniform Membership Criteria OSCA will not accept any medical documentation as qualification for a single room. Additionally, OSCA cannot accept letters from Oberlin College Student Accessibility Services because OSCA is no longer a student organization.

(3) After the Spring Upperclass Lottery, the Business Coordinator will announce the Need-Based Singles Lottery and establish a sign-up deadline which shall occur after Spring Upperclass Lottery “Deposit & Paperwork Days” have concluded.

(4) Housing Members who do not participate in or were not placed during the Need-Based Singles Lottery may enter the Co-op Singles Lottery, which will occur at the first housing meeting of the semester.

(b) Need-Based Singles Lottery

(1) The Housing Coordinator and Business Coordinator will determine who will receive a need-based single room using a tiered lottery system within each housing co-op which contains a single room.

(2) Housing members entering the Need-Based Singles Lottery will be asked to assign a number to their need for a need-based single using the following criteria:

i. (1) - I absolutely cannot live in OSCA if I am not assigned a single

ii. (2) - I can live in OSCA if not assigned a single, but it will cause significant discomfort

iii. (3) - I can live in OSCA if not assigned a single, but with significant inconvenience

(3) The Singles Lottery form will be accompanied by short situations contextualizing in a more qualitative form what a 1, 2, and 3 mean.

(4) The Singles Lottery form will also include short answer questions for students to qualify their choice for ranking their need for a single.

(5) Finally, the Singles Lottery form will encourage meeting with an Accessibility Committee Coordinator if students feel the form does not sufficiently articulate their needs.

(6) In determining who will be placed during the Need-Based Singles Lottery, members who self-assigned “1” will receive priority over “2”; those members who self-assigned “2” will receive priority over “3”.

(c) Singles Placement from the Singles List

(1) A “Singles List” will be created based on the results of the Need-Based Singles Lottery; the Singles List will be sent to the relevant HLECs who will use the Singles List to assign single rooms as future singles become available in their co-ops.

(2) HLECs will know which members have received single room accommodations, but the documentation or reasoning for the accommodations will remain confidential.

(3) HLECs are required to place two (2) students in all double rooms. In this way, extra rooms will remain empty and single rooms will be allocated according to the Singles List.

i. HLECS must be clear in their messaging to Housing Members that if a member without a single room accommodation receives a Super Single before Fall semester Add/Drop deadline, it is NOT guaranteed that the member will not later receive a roommate.

(4) At the first housing meeting of Fall and Spring semesters, if there are still single rooms available in any co-op once its Singles List is exhausted, that co-op’s HLECs will conduct a co-op singles lottery.

i. A co-op’s singles lottery will be open to all Housing Members of that co-op, regardless of whether those members self-identify as needing a single room.

(d) Discretionary Creation of a Single Room in Harkness

(1) As Harkness does not have any true single rooms, after the Need-Based Singles Lottery Harkness Housing Members seeking single room accommodations in Harkness can meet individually with Accessibility Committee Coordinators to make a case for the creation of a Harkness “Super Single” to accommodate their needs.

(2) At the end of Spring semester, the Housing Coordinator, Membership Secretary, Business Coordinator, Financial Manager and Treasurer will meet with the Accessibility Committee Coordinators to determine if a Super Single is financially feasible in Harkness. This committee will not consider any specific student accommodation requests, but rather will review the general demand for housing in Harkness and make a decision based on whether or not Harkness housing is predicted to be filled by the beginning of the coming Fall semester.

(e) Summer Lottery Placement

(1) For students who enter OSCA housing from the Summer New Student Lottery, the Membership Secretary will make sure that of the housing spaces reserved for First-Years and other summer-entering members, two (2) single rooms will be reserved, one (1) in Keep and one (1) in Tank.

i. Placement in these single rooms will be made during the Co-op Singles Lottery in Keep and Tank.

(f) Creation of Single Rooms in TWSJ

(1) Although TWSJ has no designated single rooms, OSCA seeks to ensure accessibility of the TWSJ program hall.

(2) Each Spring, the Membership Secretary and Housing Coordinator will designate two (2) Super Singles to be distributed to TWSJ Housing Members during the Need-Based Singles Lottery.

(3) During the first week of August, the Business Coordinator will work with the Housing Coordinator to allocate more single rooms to TWSJ.

i. Allocation of additional single rooms to TWSJ will be based on projected TWSJ membership figures, and correspond with 25% of projected TWSJ membership.

ii. Projected figures are determined by the sum of outstanding applications for TWSJ membership and the number of people on the Wait List for placement into TWSJ.

(g) Extenuating Circumstances

(1) Under extenuating circumstances, the Housing Coordinator, HLECs, and Accessibility Committee Coordinators may work together at their discretion to come up with solutions on a case-by-case basis.

(2) Discretionary solutions may only be provided to current Housing members. Dining members and non-OSCAns must first become members of OSCA housing to qualify.

(3) To clarify: priority housing does not mean that a student with self-identified need could displace a current resident of a single room.

The OSCA Board of Directors recommends that a list of products that use exploitative, derogatory, or offensive depictions (in words or pictures) of people of color in their marketing be kept in the OSCA office and that the co-op food buyers take this list into account when ordering food.

• Encourages all co-ops discuss time aid to make co-ops more accessible to working students.

That OSCA implement a system of transgender inclusiveness that will strive to respect and empower transgender people in OSCA. Specifically, OSCA will carry out this plan in the following ways:

(a) That all housing and dining co-ops that have at least one (1) bathroom maintain at least one (1) gender-neutral bathroom at all times. (Any co-op that does not have a bathroom is not required to follow this policy.)

(b) That OSCA remove all references to biological sex in its internal and external paperwork and allow individuals to self-identify their gender.

(c) All paperwork that requests information on gender identification should be changed to have a fill-in-the-blank line for gender.

(d) All names on both public and internal documents will reflect the chosen names of those referred to, unless explicitly requested in writing by the party named. Legal names that are not preferred will not appear on OSCA Board documents, again, unless explicitly requested in writing by the party named.

(1) Exceptions will be made for the All-OSCA membership list, which should list the chosen name alongside the legal name, dining and housing contracts, financial aid and scholarship applications, OSCA charge list, OSCA Fall and Spring invoices, and IRS tax documents that require the legal name to match the Social Security card submitted for identification.

(2) Only the Membership Secretary, the Treasurer, the President, and the Office Administrative Staff (Business Coordinator, Financial Manager, Student Administrative Assistants, Office Assistant, and Summer Office Intern) should have access to unredacted legal names.

(3) Access should be limited to the tasks and responsibilities which require it (e.g. signing checks, sending out invoices, direct usage or manipulation of the Membership List).

(4) When providing Membership Lists to others, for students whose chosen names differ from their legal names, the Membership

(5) Any Employee or Staff person above who has not signed a Confidentiality Contract is ineligible for access to unredacted legal names.

(e) That the question, “What name and pronouns should OSCA use when communicating with your parents/guardians?” be added to the Wait List, Spring Upperclass Lottery, and Summer New Student Lottery forms.

(1) The name that members use in response to this question should be used in all documentation sent to members’ home addresses and when Employees and Staff communicate directly with parents/guardians, with the exception of invoices or checks, in which the legal name should be used.

(2) Responses to this question should be shared with the Office Administrative Staff and the HLECs of the housing co-op the member belongs to (if applicable).

(f) HLECs should consider that the names posted on residents’ doors (’door decks’) could out residents to their families during move-in. As potential solutions, door decks could leave empty spaces for residents to write their own names, door decks could use last names, or, in room/roommate assignment forms, HLECs could ask residents what name they want to be posted on their door during move-in, and where necessary, the door deck could be changed after move-in.