Co-op Turns 100! Birthday Bash and Book Close a Chapter in UC History

UC is the global birthplace of cooperative education. In 1906, 27 engineering students here piloted an uncertain experiment alternating time spent at school with professional work experience. Now, one century and 43 countries later, UC wraps up the birthday year with a planned garden and a full-color book of vivid tales from co-op’s 100-year heritage.

Date: 4/11/2006 12:00:00 AM
By: Mary Reilly
Phone: (513) 556-1824

Photos By: Provided by UC Archives

The University of Cincinnati is the global birthplace of cooperative education. The practice was founded here in 1906, allowing students to learn and earn by alternating quarters spent in the classroom with quarters of paid, professional work related directly to their majors.

UC co-ops at work in 1918

The 2005-2006 school year marks co-op’s centennial, and on- and off-campus audiences have taken note. Both local media and national – media as diverse as the Los Angeles Times, Newhouse News Service, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Young Money magazine and others – have applauded the co-op concept during its anniversary year. Locally, campus and community joined in a “100 Cool Co-ops” contest, casting more than 60,000 votes to pick the coolest of UC’s present-day co-ops.

The hoopla continues this spring:

The coffee-table book, The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack: 100 Years of Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati, will be unveiled during celebrations at 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 19, 2006, in the UC Bookstore. Rich in photos, the book brings to light some wonderuflly unexpected, intriguing and perhaps overlloked episodes in co-op's 100-year heritage. Events on April 19 include a presentation of the book to University Libraries, book signings and refreshments. The event is free and open to all. After the event, the book will be available in the bookstore and online at http://www.uc.bkstr.com

Representatives from the nation’s 500 co-op colleges and universities -- along with representatives from co-op universities in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore -- will gather on the UC campus the week of April 23 to honor the university that founded the practice of co-op.

UC will induct the first honorees into the newly founded Co-op Hall of Honor at a banquet set for 7 p.m., Monday, April 24, 2006, in the Great Hall and in Rooms 400A, 400B and 400C of Tangeman University Center.

At that banquet, UC will show a simulation of a new 15,000 square foot garden named for co-op’s founder, Herman Schneider. That garden will be situated between McMicken Hall, the Joseph A. Steger Student Life Center and Baldwin Hall. This Herman Schneider Memorial Garden will eventually include low granite seating walls containing the names of the Co-op Hall of Honor inductees, a co-op timeline and other information relating to co-op.

About 200 co-op employers are expected to attend the National Commission for Cooperative Education Corporate Symposium set for June 20, 2006, at the Kingsgate Marriott Hotel.

More on co-op

New book Marks UC's Role as Birthplace of Co-op
UC Inducts First Honorees to Co-op Hall of Honor
His Family Returns to Remember Co-op's "Co-optimistic" Founder
UC's Co-op Heritage Paves the Way for University's Future