A Closer Look at Campus Co-operatives

Within the Smith housing system, there are two houses that operate as “food co-operatives”: Hopkins and Tenney. In these houses, co-op residents opt out of the regular Smith meal plan and instead share groceries independently and prepare some communal meals. With Hopkins having a capacity of 15 residents and Tenney only 14, they go somewhat unnoticed by most students, despite being well-loved by residents and their friends. Culturally distinct from regular houses yet also not as independent as most student co-ops at other colleges, which usually own the actual buildings, Smith co-ops occupy a unique position on campus. 

Around the turn of the century, Smith didn’t have nearly enough residential buildings to house all of its students, which created a demand for privately-owned boarding houses for students in the immediate area. Smith eventually acquired some of the buildings used for this purpose, including Hopkins and the original Tenney, which was on the site of what is currently the Alumnae House. 

In 1895, Mary Smith Tenney willed her boarding house to Smith, on the condition that it be an affordable option for students in exchange for the residents cooking and cleaning for themselves. In doing so, she legally obligated Smith to provide an independent and affordable option for student residency, which has since been interpreted as co-operative living. In 1936, Tenney was moved to 156 Elm St., where it has been an active co-op to this day. 

Tenney residents get together once a week for house meetings over Sunday dinners, where they assign meal shifts and chores and discuss any issues or fun ideas for the house. They share five meals a week–dinners from Sunday to Thursday. Students pair up to cook dinner for shared meals, which takes about two hours. At some point after the ’70s, Tenney became a vegetarian house, so meat is not communally bought and prepared. Favorite meals include butternut squash soup, various lentil soups and curries and variations on tofu-veggies-rice. 

Chores are also an integral part of Tenney life. Nine residents are assigned to different cleaning roles each week, including two on a weekly deep-clean. Other roles include grocery shopper and house manager, who cleans in addition to leading the weekly meeting. Chores are reassigned each week with the hope that everyone fills each role at least once.  

Tenney residents and their frequent visitors, called “adjacents”, love it for being a warm, friendly place to connect. There are several traditions to bring community into the house, including Ginger Beer and Artichokes when students invite professors over for snacks, and a new annual open mic. 

Jackie Altman ‘25 loves Tenney for its strong community and yummy food, Lillian Fok ’23 loves the seemingly endless supply of eggs to fry and Yiling Gong ‘24 loves having somewhere to come home to. Tenney’s common rooms are eclectically decorated with art by current and past residents — including a vest made entirely of Gingko tree leaves — and the kitchen counters are covered with kitchen appliances and fermentation projects. A pull-out kitchen cabinet is covered with ‘kudos,’ anonymous compliments residents leave for each other throughout the week. 

Tenney’s permanent role as a co-op set the precedent for students to petition for the next co-op in Smith’s history: Hover. In 1975, a group of students living in overflow housing petitioned Smith to open a second co-op house. So, in the fall of 1976, Smith opened Hover House as a co-op. Known for wild parties, radical activism and the focal point of the Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance (LBTA), Hover quickly gained a controversial reputation. After Hover and Tenney were referenced as “lesbian houses” in Newsweek and Harper’s Bazaar in the early ’80s, the school faced backlash from conservative alumnae. 

The facts of what happened next is disputed by different sources in the archive. In spring of 1984, Smith announced that Hover would be renovated and converted into a regular dorm. Administrative memos in the Special Collections from this time period say that it was to create more housing for Ada Comstock scholars, but it’s unclear whether this ended up happening. What Smith publicly announced was that there wasn’t enough interest in co-ops to fill the house, so they needed to repurpose the building to serve more students. 

Students, specifically Hover residents and LBTA members, strongly disagreed. Hover House files in the Special Collections are filled with dozens of impassioned editorials from The Sophian, calling out deception within the housing system that prevented students from moving into Hover and accusing the administration of allowing homophobic backlash to guide their decisions. 

Despite months of protests and widespread coverage by local and gay-specific media, Hover closed in 1984 according to plan. It was reopened after renovations as Parsons Annex.  Parsons Annex recently became a special-interest house again in 2019 as an affinity house for Black students. 

Hopkins is the most recently organized co-op at Smith. Like Tenney, Hopkins was a privately owned boarding house and was purchased by Smith in 1921. Originally, Hopkins had two annexes known as Hopkins A and B, or the Quill and the Owl’s Nest, as students called them. They were located behind Hopkins near where the campus path now sits and both were demolished in 1999. 

It is unclear when Hopkins became a co-operative house, but the first mention of this in the Special Collections is from 1994. Throughout the 2000s, Hopkins was focused on sustainability by having Community Share Agriculture (CSA) shares with local farms and purchasing bulk staples from local co-op the Pedal People. They were so committed to composting that they drove compostable waste all the way to Hampshire, until they were able to compost at Smith in 2007. 

In the 2016-2017 academic year, Hopkins worked with Residence Life to transition to being an identity-based house in addition to a co-op, so they began prioritizing applicants of color. According to a Sophian article, this was in response to a lack of action from Smith Residence Life to create affinity housing for students of color.*

Hopkins has group dinners from Sunday-Thursday at 6 p.m., and cooking is assigned monthly. Of course, many chores are cleaning focused, and residents also grocery shop and host house meetings and tea. Chores are done in pairs, and take up roughly 10 hours a week. According to Sena Amuzu ‘24, Hopkins uses a voting system of fist to five, to demonstrate how much they agree with a decision, as well as compromise instead of majority rule, to create a non-hierarchical community. 

“Hopkids”, like Em Kim ’25, love Hopkins because it is “focused on building a warm community and centers food sustainability”. Amuzu describes how having chores inspires care for shared space, and a small community creates the opportunity to “learn about my housemates as people, their cultures, and in general form bonds with those I live with.” Amuzu also emphasizes how important communal cooking is, saying that moving to Hopkins “revitalized that component of home I missed most”. Similarly, Isis Cosme ‘25 shared, “I came from a family where food is quite literally from the soul, and sharing a meal with others is fundamental to our household.” 

Cosme went on to say “I feel at ease that I found a home away from home, and a new family, and being able to recreate dishes that bring my housemates, and myself, comfort and joy.” 

Those interested in living in a co-operative house can apply in the spring for the coming fall semester. According to Residence Life Director Hannah Durrant, applications are read by a committee of college professional and student staff, and applicants are notified that same semester for the coming fall. 

*As of the time of writing, Hopkins is not one of Smith’s official affinity houses. However, according to Residence Life Director Hannah Durrant, the application includes a question about equity and inclusion, and the house mission statement has been changed to reflect Hopkins’ unique role. 

Disclaimer: The author of this article is a resident of Tenney House.