Gamma Alpha is now accepting applications for Summer/Fall 2024!

You should apply if:

• You’re a graduate or PHD student at the University of Michigan.
• Are interested in co-op living and all the perks that come with.
• Are able to commit to co-op living for 3 years.

What you’ll get at our co-op:

• Communal living with UMich grad students from all disciplines.
• A quiet neighborhood on the SE side of town, close to the Arboretum, ~1 mile from the heart of Central Campus.
• All utilities included in a very competitive rent.
• In-house laundry, street parking.
• A pantry stocked with staples such as grains and spices.
• Your own room with most basic furnishings provided.
• Fun and community!

What you’ll give:
You’ll also be expected to work. Everyone contributes their time and talents towards their individual house jobs, and we all work together on improving and maintaining the house. If you’re someone who sees a project and takes the initiative to fix it, you’d be a great fit.

You’re also probably a good fit if you are interested in living in community (and all that entails), if you’re handy with tools, like learning new skills, and can work hard. We like the NYT crossword, sustainability, gardening, political engagement, eating good food, drinking good beer, documentary movie nights, and having fun!

How to apply: tell us a little about yourself (your field of study, your interests, your anticipated graduation year, your favorite pop culture moment of the last 10 years) by emailing us at gamma.alpha.mi@gmail.com. We’ll get back to you with more details and a link to the application.

Fall Semester 2023 Recap!

The house on the corner of Hill Street has had many adventures the last six months. There were a lot of parties, each one with more delicious food than the last. We had plenty of movie nights, pilates, evening study sessions next to the warm fire and other shenanigans.

Early October: The roof was fixed! Super unfortunately, the previous roof fix was not up to code. The tar layer had been placed directly onto the wood, which, in case you’re curious, is not the correct way. The wood was rotting through and the only option was to replace it all. Our roofer, Rad the Roofer, did an excellent job replacing all the wood panels and putting down a durable new roof. Thanks, Rad!

We aren’t quite finished yet. A portion of the repairs are being delayed till warmer weather graces us. We need to disassemble the side deck (not pictured), get the new roof down, then determine IF we need said deck (fire code things) before re-assembling that very deck over top the fresh new roof.

These are homeowner things you only find out about if you own a home (or live in a co-op). Unfortunately when the deck was first added it was placed too low on the roof. This means the whole thing has to come down for the new roof to go up. Well, now we know.

the finished roof!

the skeleton crew

Also in October: BONES BONES BONES PT 2, a memorable Halloween Party. Costumes included: Johnny Cash and the Ring of Fire, Space Jam, both twins from The Shining, Kim Possible, a bear, roller skating Barbie, a ghost, and one of those green dudes from Toy Story. 10/10.

The very end of October: Fall semester House Cleaning Day had us exploring the forbidden staircase, uncovering long forgotten GA records in closets, swooning over the masculinity of past residents, and battling it out for shower dibs at the end of the day (the housemate who had the most spiders crawling on them won).

kitchen crew!

Past Gamma Alphas in their official house uniforms.

look at all those chickens!

November & December: Happy New Year and Holidays from Gamma Alpha!

January 2024: Then there was a power outage. If you know Ann Arbor’s electrical grid situation, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that the electricity stayed on in half the house while the heat went totally out. We survived by huddling around the fireplace and watching downloaded movies. But the snowfall we did get was really beautiful.

Winter 2024

February: We celebrated Lunar New Year by burning money and incense for good luck.

By the end of February, the basement gym was upgraded with a bench press and weights and at least one of us is now training for a half marathon (stay tuned for photos).

• March: Recruitment is in full swing! PhD and graduate students are welcome to apply. Please email gamma.alpha.mi@gmail.com with some info about yourself (name, program, favorite ramen restaurant) and we will send you the official application!

That’s all for now. Come back for the Wine (Weed?) and Cheese Party, graduation celebrations, Spring House Cleaning Day, and whatever other house repairs will inevitably appear.

Cheers! -GA

The Haunting of the House on Hill Street (minus the ghosts, plus a secret stairwell)

Originally published October 2023.

Welcome to October at Gamma Alpha! October, of course, means that the infamous GA Halloween Party is looming. The Halloween decorations are STILL tucked away in that weird basement storage/prepper room so obviously it’s super important we get the many garden skeletons and cackling witch set up asap.

This year we’re debating between the classic party theme “Bones, Bones, Bones” (an ode to actual bones, not the TV show) and its new spinoff “Gourds, Gourds, Gourds” (an ode to the tiny pumpkin phenomenon that occurs throughout the house this time of year). The house vote was totally split at our October 2nd meeting, it’s been quite the contentious issue.

pictured: tiny gourds & late summer dinner nights

Also on the October house meeting agenda was the equally infamous Roof Repair Project of 2023. Several areas of this 1919 Georgian Revival home feature flat roofs, which are in dire need of updating before winter. While there was a lot to discuss this meeting and ultimately we opted to repair the three *most* important areas now and hold off from repairing two other sections of the roof until next summer. 

This was followed up with the house unanimously approving a one time rent increase of 6.5%. The reality of an impending, expensive roof repair coupled with inflation requires balancing our mission as a 501(c)3 affordable housing organization with keeping the house we live in safe and livable. As much as this organization is composed of individual people, the house is its own character in this story. And like all of us, it is prone to creaks and leaks and a hidden staircase or two. Fortunately, residents are creative, invested and game to deconstruct a deck (more updates on that later).

In other news, Tay, aka Professor Sprout, has been transforming the Gamma Alpha yard from a “Pollinator Aware Yard” to a very tidy Pollinator Aware Yard. Tay even received The Appreciation Monkey this month for his Scarecrow addition! The Scarecrow has already successfully scared whoever arrives home after dark these days, which isn’t hard to do since the sun sets at 7:30pm in Ann Arbor, rip summer. 

So, Dear Readers of co-op housing blogs, you’ll be pleased to know that the house is full and us Masters/PhD students are very busy studying by the living room fire each night. But we’re finding extra time for cookie baking, sharing tales of house years past, going on camping trips, garden kale picking, full moon telescope gazing, and house dinner nights, tiny pumpkins included.

Happy October!

Welcome to the Gamma Alpha blog!

Gamma Alpha is a cooperative house located on the south-east side of the University of Michigan campus. We are a diverse mix of graduate students who maintain a clean living space, eco-friendly habits, and a respectful environment. We come from a variety of fields, such as Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Environmental Engineering, but Social Work, Philosophy, and Sociology are represented as well.

Living at Gamma Alpha

The house has thirteen private rooms, so every resident has their own room. Besides that, we also have a guest room for visitors. Besides the rooms themselves, the house has plenty of amenities, such as:

• A kitchen with an gas stove and plenty of kitchen utensils
• A living / dining room
• A sun room with lots of plants and a T.V.
• Laundry facilites in the basement
• Two and a half (?!?) baths
• A tool room with … tools
• A garage where we keep our bikes and a ping pong table
• Plenty of storage room

How we manage to keep the house in good shape

For the regular duties, we have a cleaning schedule for the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the living room. Every resident has one chore per week, which is either kitchen, or bathrooms / living room. Besides these regular chores, each resident devotes five hours each semester to miscellaneous repairs in the house. These includes such things as replacing tiles, repainting, and fixing leaks. Twice a year, we have our house cleaning. On this day, we all work together to thoroughly clean the house from top to bottom.
As a cooperative house, every resident has a specific house job, such as treasurer, recycling, or taking care of the mail. We also have regular house meetings, where we discuss ideas and issues to improve our cooperative.

What we contribute to the house

Every resident enriches the house with their background, interests, and hobbies. For instance, there is a gardening contingent cultivating our modest plot three seasons a year. The vegetarian cooking group prepares dinners four nights a week, and some residents recently started brewing. Other activities include playing music, sledding in the Arb (winter only), or just watching movies together.

Two house parties mark the fall and winter semester: the halloween party at the end of October, and the wine and cheese party which rings in the spring.