Co-op Club (Georgia Institute of Technology) Records
Collection
Identifier: UA440
Records, correspondence, and advertisements from the Georgia Tech Co-op Club, Section I.
(four full-size document cases)
None.
Permission to publish materials from this collection must be obtained from the Head of Archives and Special Collections.
1.6 Linear Feet
This collection contains correspondence, advertisements, newsletters, meeting minutes, and other documents relating to the administration of the Georgia Tech Co-op Club, Section I. Series 1 includes constitutions of the club. The documents in Series 2 are taken from the "Co-op Club Presidents' Notebook," a series of binders cataloguing all of the duties and activities of the Club's president, from 1989 to 1999. The materials in Series 3 consist of planning documents for social and service activities, such as Georgia Tech Casino Night and the Red Cross blood drive, correspondence, and meeting minutes.
The Georgia School (now Institute) of Technology was founded in 1885, and its doors first opened in 1889. In 1906, the University of Cincinnati began a new program for their students known as the Co-operative Program. This program combined practical work experience with classroom experience, providing credit toward a degree for successful completion of a term in a work environment. The program was a success, and a few other universities and colleges adopted it as well. In 1912, Georgia Tech adopted co-operative education. Tech's program, unlike those at other schools, was optional for students. Because Tech was on the quarter system, each co-op student would alternate work and class quarters. Half of the co-op students would have their work quarters in the spring and fall, and the other half would work during the winter and summer quarters.
Because many co-op students did not live on or near campus during their work quarters, they found it hard to become active in clubs or organizations in school that coincided with the normal school schedule. Therefore, in 1915, the Co-op Club was formed, and split in to two sections: Section I for students who had their work quarters in summer and winter, and section II for those who worked fall and spring.
Throughout its history, the club served the interests of many co-op students, and in the 1950s and 1960s, it held a dance called the "Miss Perfect Lips" Dance. At the end of the night, the group would crown "Miss Perfect Lips," the woman at the party with the nicest lips. Beginning in the 1980s, the Co-op Club collaborated with the Georgia Tech Bookstore to host the annual Monte Carlo Night, which was later renamed to Casino Night, a free casino-style party open to all Tech students. Also beginning in the 1980s, the Co-op Club's largest service event was the quarterly Blood Drive, which consistently collected hundreds of pints of blood for the Red Cross. The Co-op Club also administered the James G. Wohlford Scholarship, a $250 award for an outstanding senior in the Co-op program.
In 2000, Georgia Tech transitioned from the quarter system to the semester system, combining both sections of the Co-op Club into one. Membership dwindled, and the club probably disbanded in 2004. Administration of the Wohlford Scholarship was transferred to the Briarean Society, the honor society for co-op students.
This collection is arranged into three series:
A print copy of this finding aid is available in the Georgia Tech Archives reading room.
Donations, 2000 and 2002; accession numbers 2000.054 and 2002.076.
Two scrapbooks and a single photograph from this collection have been processed separately as VAUA440. Artifacts (three T-shirts and three banners) have been removed to the artifacts collection.
(four full-size document cases)
Lindsay Resnick and Christine de Catanzaro processed this collection in June 2012.
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology Repository