History of the Inter-Cooperative Council of Ann Arbor

This archive is dedicated to current, former, and prospective members of the Inter-Cooperative Council of Ann Arbor (commonly referred to as just the ICC) interested in the history of the houses that comprise the organization. As a form of collective housing, the student co-ops foster a population of people from various backgrounds, all united in the interest of cooperation and affordable housing. We'd also like to welcome those to this site who are members of cooperative housing from other cities, activists seeking to learn about cooperative movements in general, or those interested in the history of Ann Arbor as the co-ops have contributed significantly to the unique profile of the city.

The perspectives featured in this archive are mostly drawn from the ICC's archives within the Bentley Historical Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We chose entries based on a holistic interest in representing both ICC leadership and its members. Given the democratic nature of the organization, there is a fair amount of overlap in the two parties. The entries themselves are mostly internal ICC documents, materials created by ICC members, and works published in ICC affiliated publications. Some entries consist of newspaper articles from third party sources. Because most of the materials created were created by ICC insiders, they are not very representative of the public at large's interactions with the ICC. We have consciously included material critical of the ICC, but even this material was created by members who, despite their criticism, had a largely positive view of the organization. Due to the nature of the ICC and the demographics who largely comprise it, the archive materials' authors are mostly college educated, mostly white, and mostly young.

The Inter-Cooperative Council is currently made up of 16 houses. In celebration of each coop's unique personality and history, we have created a page for each with information about each house's background and culture.

Several ICC properties have been sold, lost, or burned down throughout the years. We have chosen to not include them in this archive due to manpower limitations.

If you'd like to jump to a specific house, click the three horizonal lines in the top right of this page, otherwise, press next to browse alphabetically.