Co-Op Store Owned by Students
The Co-op store at the Univer
sity stands in a distinct minority
among college stores—it is com
pletely owned by University stu
dents. Only three per cent of the
more than 2,000 college stores
in the nation operate under a
similar arrangement.
Most college stores are owned
by the colleges and universities
where they are located and most
do not give refunds on pur
chases. as does the Co-op. The Co
op has given a 10 per cent refund
to members consistently for the
past 18 years, the only store
west of the Rockies to do so.
Corporation Operates
Although the Co-op is entirely
student-owned, it is not an offi
cial part of the University. It is
operated by a separate corpora
tion, which has as its board of
directors five students and tw’o
faculty members elected by the
membership.
A membership good for the en
tire academic year is available to
any University student for 25
cents. The members are entitled
to refunds on purchases, given
at the end of the school year and
based on the total of accumulat
ed Co-op receipts and are eligible
to vote in the annual Co-op elec
tions in the spring.
No Stockholders
The Co-op store was started in
1921 by a group of faculty mem
WORK proceeds on the new $500,000 Co-op store at 13th Ave. and Kincaid St. Features of the
new 25,000-square-foot store, due for completion winter term, include air conditioning, skylighting
and a meeting room for students and faculty.
i bers who bought stock to finance
! the initial operation, according to
Gerald Henson, Co-op manager.
1 The stock was later purchased and
liquidated by the present cor
poration.
Japanese Exhibit
Opens at Museum
A special exhibit of Japanese
woodblock prints, together with
the tools used in printing, is one
of the newly reorganized displays
in the University Museum of Art.
The prints are arranged in a
developmental sequence, illustrat
ing the technical and stylistic
progress of the Japanese wood
block through its short history,
18th and 19th centuries.
Japanese woodblock prints
first came to the attention of the
Western world in France, via Hol
land, about 1815. The Dutch,
trading with the Japanese out of
Nagasaki, apparently used the
prints as wrapping paper for the
parcels they were sending to
Europe.
Even in Japan the prints were
considered merely as expendable
amusement, or decoration for
such things as paper partitions,
screens, fans, and kites. No rec
ognition was given the prints as
artistic achievement, either by
the feudal government or by the
artists practicing within the class
ical traditions, which had been
established for centuries.
The “ukiyo-e” tradition of
woodblock prints developed out
of the demands of a growing mer
chant class who sought entertain
ment in things less serious than
the traditional arts and scholarly
leisure-time pursuits of the no
bility. This merchant class sought
entertainment in the popular Ka
buki theater, the courtesan quar
ters, and in the current fashions
of the moment. Thus, these as
pects of living were presented
in the ukiyo-e (“this fleeting,
floating world” of ephemeral
pleasure).
The subjects of the prints were
primarily courtesans and Kabuki
actors. Only in the 19th century
did Japanese landscape become
subject matter for the most fa
mous of the Japanese woodblock
artists—Hokusai and Hiroshige.
In spite of such inauspicious
beginnings, woodblock prints to
day are highly regarded as artis
tic achievements. They had a tre
mendous influence on the devel
opment of Post-Impressionist ar
tists such as Gaugin, Van Gogh,
and James McNeill Whistler.
Western collectors have been ac
quiring the prints as art objects
since the late 19th century.
An interesting facet of the
woodblock print process is the
fact that each print was the re
sult of cooperative effort between
three persons—the artist, the
block-carver, and the printer. The
artist drew a sketch of the de
sired composition which was
given to the block-carver. This
sketch was pasted directly onto
the cherry wood block and was
used as the pattern for cutting.
The carved block then went to
the printer, who covered it with
paint in a rice paste medium,,
placed a sheet of mulberry bark
paper over the block and rubbed
off an impression by hand.
Th e reorganized woodblock
print exhibition is in the Gallery
of Japanese Art on the second
floor of the Museum of Art. Mu
seum hours are from 1 to 5 p.m.
Tuesday through Sunday. The
museum is closed Monday.
• ADVERTISERS • i
PATRONIZE
I
WATCH OUT
for the opening
of the NEW
HASTY HOUSE
featuring
LUCIOUS GOLDEN CHICKEN
delicious big-treat hamburgers
and a variety of sandwiches
Corner of Hilyard & Broadway
Henson said that a common lo
cal misconception is that there
are still stockholders having
shares in the Co-op, although the
original stock certificates have
long since been cancelled and are
valueless.
Since 1921 the Co-op has grown
into a business that had gross
sales of $1,380,000 during the last
fiscal year, according to prelim
inary reports, and refunded some
$83,000 to student members.
To get an idea of its operation.
Henson said that the store sells
about 35 tons of paper each
year.
Acute Space Problems
Suffering from acute space
problems, the Co-op is presently
building new quarters at the
corner of 13th Ave. and Kincaid
St., which will enlarge its total
space to about 37,000 square feet,
double the present size.
The new store is due for com
pletion during winter term. The
store presently has two locations
—one in the basement of Chap
man Hall for supplies, and a sec
ond store adjacent to the new
building on Kincaid St., which
handles books only.
The Chapman Hall space will be
used for graduate study facilities
when the Co-op vacates it.
Three Levels
The new store will be on three
levels, as is the present Kincaid
St. structure—two stories plus a
basement. It will cost about
$500,000
When the new quarter* are
completed, the top floor* of each
building will be used exclusively
for textbooks—the Coop han
died over 1,300 different textbook
titles last year
The ground level of the present
building will be converted to
office space, with all “trade
books" (non textbooks) housed on
the new building's ground floor.
The basements of both will be
used for storage, with possible in
stallation of cashcr stands in the
new buildings basement in the
future.
60 Per Cent Join
Other facilities in the new store
include perimeter storage around
the floor areas for easy access to
supplies, tinted glass skylights,
air conditioning and a meeting
room for use by University stu
dents and faculty The new struc
ture will also have public rest
rooms.
Henson said the annual mem
bership (inure of the Coop ls
quite consistent about 00 per
cent of the student body ||o salt)
this figure is fairly standard
across the country.
Hooks account f«>r over 65 per
cent of the gross sales over $1
million last year.
The Co-op employs between Hi
and 20 students each year, with
extras hired during the fail rush.
The new Coop was not built
without a fight in fact, several
tilings base delayed its comple
tion.
Former Tavern Site
It occupies the site of the for
mer College Side Inn, once a
tavern and later a favorite cafe
for I’niversity students When
Hie Coop proposed -to j.ii/t- the
structure, which hail been closed
for safety reasons, a "Save the
Side" campaign was led on cam
pus by Vic Sabin, a University
architecture student. Controver
sy ratted for months, and finally
the Co-op members decided by an
eight-vote margin to destroy the
Side
The new store was due for
completion at the opening of fall
term, but work was stopped for
nearly three months by pickets
Willis A Hill of Salem, general
contractor for the project. In Jan
uary refused to sign an agree
ment with the Building Trades
Council
Injunction Issued
The Council is a group of 17
trade organizations who picketed
Hill for hiring non union help An
injunction was Anally Issued in
favor of Hill in April, and work
began once more.
One freshman is elected to the
Co-op Hoard each year to serve
a one year term, and two sopho
mores are elected yearly to two
year terms. One faculty member
is elected each year to a two
year term; thus the Hoard al
ways has seven members.
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