The Green Book A Collection of U.S.C.A. History Guy Lillian and Krista Gasper 1971, 2002 Last Edited: March 26th, 2006 ii Contents I Cheap Place to Live 1 1 1933–1937 5 2 1937–1943 27 3 1943–1954 37 4 1954–1963 51 5 1964–1971 75 II Counterculture’s Last Stand 109 6 Introduction 113 7 What Was the U.S.C.A.? 115 8 How Did Barrington Hall Fit In? 121 9 What Were the Problems? 127 10 What is Barrington’s Legacy? 153 III Appendix 155 A Memorable Graffiti from Barrington Hall 157 B Reader Responses 159 iii iv CONTENTS About This Book The Green Book is a compilation of two sources. The first, Cheap Place to Live, was completed in 1971 by Guy Lillian as part of a U.S.C.A. funded project during the summer of 1971. The second, Counterculture’s Last Stand, was completed in 2002 by Krista Gasper as part of her undergraduate studies at Berkeley. Additional resources can be found at: • http://www.barringtonhall.org/ - A Barrington Hall web site run by Mahlen Morris. You can find a lot of pictures and other cool stuff here. • http://www.usca.org/ - The official U.S.C.A. web site. • http://ejinjue.org/projects/thegreenbook/ - The Green Book homepage. Warning: This book is not intended to be a definitive, com- plete and/or accurate reference. If you have any comments, suggestions or corrections, please email them to [email protected]. John Nishinaga Editor v vi CONTENTS Part I Cheap Place to Live 1 Introduction and Acknowledgments This history of the University Students Cooperative Associa- tion (U.S.C.A.) was funded through a grant by the Berkeley Consumers Cooperative to the U.S.C.A. aimed at financing a student project for the summer of 1971. Mark Gary, then Pres- ident of the U.S.C.A. Board of the Directors, suggested to the Board that a history of the organization would be suitable, and the job was assigned to me on the first of June. Composition was completed today, December 19th, 1971. My idea for this book was to write a biography of the U.S.C.A. rather than a history, concentrating on individual members’ sto- ries and recollections, and avoiding as best as possible a strictly organizational perspective. A series of interviews with co-op pioneers and veterans in the Bay Area was initiated with this aim in mind. To a man, I found those co-opers I talked to— usually with the aid of Marcella Murphy, co-op vice-president— generous with information and impressive in their enthusiasm for the organization and its precepts. I want to thank each of them—Doug Cruikshank, Bill Davis, Dan Eisenstien, Harry Kingman, Dick Palmer, Dave Bortin, Larry Collins and Hal Norton—for their assistance and the glimpse each gave me into the nature of the co-op. I only wish that time and money had permitted me to contact more co-op alumni, several of whom I spoke with but did not formally interview. My apologies to them, and to the book—they could only have added rich- ness. Too often I found the “organizational perspective” the only available viewpoint. I want to express special gratitude to Harry Kingman, for 3 4 lending me much valuable material from his files. Without them the background for the co-op’s birth would have been whole cloth. Also to be thanked are the present Board and staff of the U.S.C.A. for the aid they returned for persistent annoyance from me. Thanks of personal sorts to Marcella Murphy, Gwen Lindgren, and Gail Schatzberg for their impetus and assistance. And a most extraordinary thank you to Carolyn Callahan, who has never even been in Berkeley, let alone been a co-op mem- ber, for typing so much of the manuscript without promise of compensation. I hope that this book will help the co-op as it enters its fifth decade. No living group has been around as long, done as much, or had a more interesting effect on the Berkeley campus and the idea of co-operatives in the United States. I hope new members manage to read it, and become involved in the organization they now own and control. The title of this tome to the contrary: the U.S.C.A. is far, far more than a cheap place to live. It is a life-experience. Nothing more to write, except to say that I have enjoyed this project, and regard it as valuable to my life, and my career, however either may go. And to thank the people I lived with for most of my college life, and dedicate this work. To my brothers and sisters of Barrington Hall. Fall 1969 to Spring 1971. Guy Lillian III Co-op Historian [Editor: Many parts were edited to improve readability. Careful attention was paid to preserve the author’s original style and tone.] Chapter 1 1933–1937 It began where a lot begins, in Berkeley, California. But its be- ginning came when much was ending, in the 1930’s. It always was a different sort of thing. The collegiate generation of the early 1930’s was faced with unique problems. As with practi- cally every other group of Americans, the Depression of those times had severely cramped the economic viability of its mem- bers. The college students of that time could be divided, there- fore, into two extremely general groups: first, the well-to-do, whose fathers had economic positions in the society unthreat- ened by the Depression; second, the far more extensive group, poor students who lived in enforced frugality and survived by superhuman determination. This latter, larger group imposed a great responsibility on the schools that they attended. Programs of student aid were begun on every major college or university campus but they were handicapped for the same economic reasons that their stu- dents were handicapped. The University of California at Berke- ley was, in 1930, the major educational institution of the state. The 16,000 students attending Berkeley fit, of course, into the two general categories mentioned above. But, as a large state institution, the University had more resources to draw on than many private institutions. It had its own Y.M.C.A., for exam- ple, which itself had a resource no other institution could claim: its director, Harry Kingman. Kingman was an unduplicatable man of many accomplishments, by no means the major of which 5 6 CHAPTER 1. 1933–1937 is discussed here. Kingman, in 1933, was in his second year as general secre- tary of Stiles Hall, the University of California Young Men’s Christian Association, as well as coach of the Cal Freshmen Baseball Team. He had come to the Y.M.C.A. in 1916 from a stint with the New York Yankees and New York College. In 1931 the death of the then-general secretary had elevated King- man to the directorship of campus organization. He brought the position an activism that dealth with many problems of his constituency. In recognition of that activism, Robert Gordon Sproul, the President of the University, appointed Kingman to a committee, with three other faculty members, designed to “assist and befriend” incoming freshmen in 1932. Kingman’s membership brought him into direct contact with the incredi- ble economic straits that the student body had to navigate. The Y.M.C.A. itself kept a supply of used clothing on hand for destitute students. Other community organizations—Hillel, Newman Hall (the university Catholic chapel)—provided simi- lar services. Mostly the efforts of these organizations were di- rected towards finding jobs for the students—insufficient funds were not only keeping potential students away from Berkeley, they also caused many to drop out. In September of 1932 King- man went on the local radio with a speech called “Students Without Money,” which detailed the types of aid available to the destitute. One case he mentioned was of a student who was, relatively, extremely fortunate; he lived with an uncle who paid his tuition and books. Presumably the room with the rel- ative carried board privileges too, and the student had only to worry about extracurricular expenses. According to King- man, he was asked about his financial status approximately four months into the semester. The student counted his change and said, “I started the semester with three dollars, but I have only about one dollar left.” He was fortunate. A case existed at that time of one student who collapsed on College Avenue from malnutrition. Others spent as little as five dollars a month on food. In his radio broadcast Kingman defended the various efforts to support students: “The fact is that relief needs on the California campus have been fairly well met.” In addition to private aid there were also University loans—about 70 different funds available at that time—which suffered from the inability 7 of most students to repay them and from being solely avail- able to undergraduates. There were also some emergency loans available, as well as 200 University scholarships which averaged at about $225. These scholarships reached less than a third of the qualified students. Kingman listed more scholarships as the most urgent need of student aid. Among Kingman’s targets as a member of Sproul’s freshman advisory committee were the men of the class of ’34. Kingman met with these students often in late 1932, seeking a long-range solution to the financial problems then faced. Most Cal students didn’t have uncles living in town who were willing to pay for tuition and supply room and board.