In the face of Elizabeth Waters becoming co-ed and the number of local co-ops diminishing, the Zoe Bayliss Women's Co-op represents one of the last havens for specialty housing on campus. However, in recent years this unique co-op has also faced difficult times.
'We're really one of the last co-ops on campus' said UW-Madison senior Ariana Imhof, vice president of Bayliss. 'We were going to get torn down last year, but all the girls went to the university and said it's not fair. We've been here for 50 years. I know our partner house, Susan B. Davis, just got turned into university housing, and it also used to be a co-op.'
'The building is a university housing building that we actually lease to the co-op, and then they operate it and recruit students and do all the leasing and contracts with the students,' said Paul Evans, director of university housing.
Recruiting students can sometimes be difficult, especially because of the common misconceptions students can have concerning co-ops.
'You don't have to be affiliated with anybody; that's one of the misconceptions that scares people away,' Imhof said. 'They think you've got to be part of a cult or government related, but we're not, we just want cheap housing.'
This affordable housing can be very attractive for the people who live there. 'We are actually really cheap compared to dorm rooms, you can get a small single room, a large single or a double. Right now a double is about $3200 for the year including food,' Imhof said. 'We have community bathrooms on each floor, it's mostly doubles, and we have free Internet and cable and our own cook who we pay.'
Since the co-op doesn't have advertising in the university's housing viewbook, it must rely on getting many of its undergrad and graduate student members without formal advertisement.
'Word of mouth is one thing we do. We put up flyers in the dorms and we have an open house,' said UW-Madison sophomore Taya Schairer, president of Bayliss. Many simply love the culture of the co-op but almost all love the price of living there, she said.
Though many of the local co-ops are diminishing, the Bayliss Co-op seems to persist because of the genuinely good experiences residents have from living there.
'My favorite part about living in the co-op is the environment,' said UW-Madison doctoral student Chen-Chen Cheng, the business manager for Bayliss. 'We have so many students from so many different places. The interaction and the mingling is just wonderful.'
