{shortcode-c006843df8b26eb073195dd10d134cc97b472814} Free will isn’t entirely an illusion; students can (and many do!) choose to live outside of the traditional House system. Some of these students (up to 32) live instead at 3 Sacramento St. or 1705 Massachusetts Ave., two Victorian houses that serve as the physical home for the Dudley Co-op.

While students in the Co-op might not live in a House, they live in a literal house, unlike us plebes they are not without a home. With weekly meetings, chores, and stewardships, Co-op residents collectively care for their residences and for each other, forming a vibrant, supportive community that, believe it or not, is based on more than hippie values and vegetarianism — though the meals that residents cook for each other on a daily basis are, in fact, vegetarian. Residents break bread — literally and figuratively, since homemade bread is a regular sight at 3 Sacramento St. — on a nightly basis and enjoy lively conversations before they return to their assignments or set up for one of their regular (and legendary) parties. Many traditions central to the Co-op revolve around meals, including Feaster, an Easter Feast; Love Bites, a Halloween-themed Valentine’s Day party; and Naked Brunch (no explanation needed).

Many students in the Co-op are creatively inclined (or “historically very artsy, very queer, and very political,” as Mariah M. Norman ’25 put it); residents make this abundantly clear through paintings on walls throughout the Co-op and through the various creations — from mulled wine to freshly churned butter — that they share with their housemates. The students in the Co-op also exhibit the eccentricity you would expect from an artist of yore, naming the rat as their mascot. Yes, you read that right, and yes, I was just as scandalized as you are now. In response to my flummoxed face, Norman rushed to explain, “We’re allowed to do that because we don’t have rats. There’s no rats, there’s no roaches. We don’t have pests, so we can joke about it.” Honestly, I’m not entirely convinced, but okay, I guess…

If the thought of living without bonus roommates (read: an entire battalion of rats, roaches, or silverfish) is tempting enough to convince you to leave your House for the Co-op, you are in luck because we’ve compiled the Spark Notes version for you. Typically, students interested in joining the community at the Co-op will start out as a “quarterboarder,” completing a smaller fraction of the chores a resident would be responsible for and participating in Co-op social activities without living in either of the Co-op’s buildings. If the thought of chores is too daunting for you after a few semesters of dhall food and abusing providing financial support to the HUA laundry service, you should note that chores can be fun! Actually. “Living here [at Dudley] can sometimes make those chores actually feel fulfilling… Here, you might, like, bump into a couple of people and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, I’m doing laundry, too,’ and then you do it together,” Ash R. Johnson noted. One of your laundry buddies might even be a future talk show host, as Norman and Johnson divulged that Conan O’Brien ’85 (a resident of Mather House) once quarterboarded at the Co-op. So, if you join the Co-op, you’ll be able to eat dinner at a table O’Brien personally wiped down instead of staring longingly at his signed picture in the Mather JCR — talk about motivation to get your hands dirty.

After quarterboarding, students are formally voted into the Co-op, allowing them to finally live there! Similar to the rising junior and senior housing lotteries in most Houses, students in the Co-op take turns choosing rooms based on seniority, but priority is assigned based on semesters of involvement in the Co-op rather than academic class. (So, essentially the same process as in any House but with much fewer mental gymnastics.)

Students living in the Co-op pay less for room and board than other students at the College, but that doesn’t mean that their housing is subpar. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. If the Co-op was at capacity, a few students would need to double up, but with 27 students currently living in the Co-op (many of them seniors), everyone gets to enjoy their own space in a roomy single. By roomy, I mean ridiculously roomy; singles in the Co-op make the average Quad bedroom look small. If students would like, they can choose to share their room with another living creature since the Co-op is kind enough to allow pets in its 1705 Mass. Ave. location.

Apart from amazing rooms, residents in Dudley also enjoy some amazing amenities, including an industrial kitchen, complete with a walk-in fridge. Other common spaces include a basement that is often used for parties, a library with a TV perfect for movie nights (especially for screenings of a certain Flyby-approved vampire romance franchise), and the so-called “Den of Iniquity,” a not-so-quiet study space for students off of the foyer. These common spaces are concentrated in the 3 Sacramento St. house — a two-minute walk for those in 1705 Mass. Ave — but a spacious garden at the other house is a favorite spot in warmer months.

Another unique feature of the Co-op is the warmth the residents add to the space. As Norman noted, “You build an actual community with people because you're doing real communal living.” This community is reflected on the walls throughout the Co-op, including a wall dedicated to quotes of residents, a wall decorated with illustrations of residents’ crushes, and (perhaps students’ favorite), the so-called “communism wall,” emblazoned with the call “Workingmen of the world, unite!” in several languages. Additionally, just as in the Houses, students often paint their names throughout the houses, especially as they near graduation, making their mark (quite literally) on the community and space they call home.

In Dudley, people get real and as Johnson put it, “real entangled.” Real human connection is, perhaps, anathema for students at this school, if relationship statuses are anything to go by, but if you’d prefer housemates to Housemates, would love to whip up a storm in the kitchen, or simply feel dissatisfied with House life, the Co-op might just be for you!

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