New Book Marks UC’s Role as Birthplace of Co-op

A just-released book, The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack, is the story of cooperative education at UC. It tells of co-op through the lives of the young people who, for the past century, took on big jobs of real trust from employers betting real money. The book will be unveiled at celebrations set for 1 p.m., April 19, in the UC Bookstore.

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

Photos By: Dottie Stover; from UC Archives and alumni

The University of Cincinnati 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, 100 years and 43 countries later, generations of students worldwide have followed our lead.

Co-op was so closely associated with its founding school and city that the 1934 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defined co-op as The Cincinnati Plan.

Today, hundreds of thousands of students, studying everything from accounting to urban affairs, continue the ever-expanding educational experiment – which was once defined in Webster’s unabridged dictionary as “The Cincinnati Plan.” Using the classroom as their home base, students around the globe now alternate days, quarters or semesters spent in school with paid, professional experience related directly to their majors, just like those first UC students of 1906.

As co-op nears the end of its 100th birthday year, we’re not blowing smoke about its educational impact and value to employers and communities. To mark the year and UC’s pivotal role in founding co-op, the university is releasing a new book titled The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack: 100 Years of Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati.

The book will be unveiled during celebrations set for 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 19, 2006, in the UC Bookstore. 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

The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack is a photo-rich compilation of stories that brings to light some wonderfully unexpected, intriguing and perhaps overlooked episodes in co-op’s 100-year heritage. The book doesn’t look at co-op as an abstract principle or disembodied concept. Co-op is experience, yes. It’s learning and earning, yes. But, it’s also the priceless intangibles of maturity, growth, responsibility, and most of all, trust. The 100-year story of co-op is a tale of trust fulfilled and retold in the form of one-to-one accounts of young lives changed, enhanced by experience. Major funding for the book was provided by the Herman Schneider Memorial Fund.

The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack includes

Co-op’s hard-luck beginnings
UC’s Board of Trustees approved the co-op proposition with one vote to spare, the consent actually read: “We hereby grant the right…to try, for one year, the cooperative idea of education…[for] the failure of which, we will not assume responsibility.”

Co-op’s contributions to its city and nation

Cincinnati's Central Parkway when it was first completed in 1928

Co-op has served as a quiet cornerstone in forming Cincinnati’s growth since 1906. But more than that, the program helped lay a foundation for national institutions and essential progress. For instance, co-op students helped ready the first exhibits at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and helped establish Lookout Mountain National Park in Georgia. Here at home, co-ops used their brains and their brawn, helping to fill in the canal that became Central Parkway, lay out the communities of Greenhills and Mariemont, build Union Terminal and the Western Hills Viaduct, build the Carew Tower and more.

Co-op’s Firsts, Bests and Boasts

In 1906, UC founded the practice of co-op.
In 1915, UC was first to experiment in the placement of nursing students in co-op.
In 1919, UC founded the first co-op program in business.
In 1920, UC was the first to admit women into co-op.

What's More

UC houses the nation’s largest mandatory co-op program.
UC houses the largest co-op program at any public institution in the United States.
UC houses the world’s third-largest co-op program
UC houses the world’s largest combined design, architecture and art co-op program.

Today’s 24-karat co-ops

Look at the Federal Express logo. See the arrow created by the negative space between the capital “E” and the “x” of Express? Co-opping student John Lutz created that logo in 1994.

Jeannette Dehmer had a California co-op that was a dream come true – checking up on Albert Einstein’s work by contributing to a historic space mission. She remained on co-op for an entire academic year to help launch Gravity Probe-B, a project 40 years in the making.

The further from UC anyone’s ever co-opped is Auroville, India. Logan Allen worked there to develop ways to use compressed-earth building materials for modern earthquake-resistant construction.

Many other aspects of co-op are covered in the book

A character sketch of co-op’s “co-optimistic” founder Herman Schneider
Adventures and misadventures of the first class of co-op students
The brutality of The Great Depression on UC’s co-ops
Co-op experiences of every stripe during the world wars
The early struggles of women and African Americans in the program
Growing pains and aches as co-op enjoyed leap-frog growth after 1950
Co-op “grows” global from the 1990s on
Co-op during and after 9/11
Co-op’s next steps into the future

UC co-op students during the Great Depression

Importantly, because co-op has changed and grown, history itself has taken on new forms and shape. Co-op has helped mold the history of women in this country, the struggle for racial equality, and the march for scientific advancement, along with victory in war and progress in peace.

The Ivory Tower and the Smokestack portrays these challenges, milestones, setbacks and successes – always through the eyes of the young people who, for the past century, lived and actively participated in them. All the while, gaining learning to last a lifetime through UC’s practice of “hire education.”

For more on co-op

Co-op Turns 100! Birthday Bash and Book Close a Chapter in UC History
UC Inducts First Honorees into New 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