The University of Wisconsin-Madison recently announced that they are planning to replace the Zoe Bayliss Cooperative on the corner of Park Street and West Johnson Street with the new Irving and Dorothy Levy humanities building. 

This move would cause the cooperative to no longer function as it does, which is composed of 35 students who rely on Zoe Bayliss for an affordable housing option in the Madison area. If the project continues at this location, the cooperative will no longer be able to exist there after the 2022-2023 school year, according to Zoe Bayliss president Angela Maloney. 

“So our building is next to a dorm building and compared to the building next door, it costs 48% of the price to live at Zoe Bayliss. That includes 10 meals every week, as well as staple foods that residents always have access to,” she said in a statement. 

While UW Madison has offered the students one of floors in the UW residence hall, many members of the co-op find this option unacceptable because they would no longer have financial control over their small community. This means they would no longer be a democratically run cooperative, according to Maloney. 

“So myself as the president, I was voted for by the residents as president of the co-op and we have officers that coordinate all of the cooking and cleaning in the house. We also have an executive board that consists entirely of current or alumni residents. That is unique because we are basically able to set up our own rules and our own rent price,” said Maloney. 

The Zoe Bayliss Cooperative, which was founded in 1955, is unique in the way that it is composed of freshman and graduate students who coexist with each other by delegating housing responsibilities. Some of these responsibilities include: cooking meals, cleaning, managing all finances, running a board of directors, and making decisions jointly. Maloney said the cooperative also fosters leadership skills. 

“We are able to offer more flexibility to students because the people who run the co-op are also the people who live here and understand what it is like as a student and some of the difficulties that can come up, such as needing to pay rent a little late one month,” said Maloney. 

Maloney also said that UW Madison has been unclear about what the exact cost of living would be for the displaced students, but has said that pricing would increase. 

“We are just a community of people who love where we live. We didn’t ask to be displaced and we are hopeful that the university will justly compensate us for displacing our community,” said Maloney. 

In a petition created by the Zoe Bayliss cooperative, the members of the community call on UW Madison to let them preserve their cooperative by letting them stay in the building or by relocating them to a separate building where they continue to function as the last housing cooperative in Madison. 

The organization is asking for community donations through their website or signatures for their petition to help support saving the Zoe Bayliss community. To sign the Zoe Bayliss  petition, community members can visit www.change.org. The petition is called,  “Save Zoe Bayliss.” Additionally, emails can be sent to the University Housing and the Chancellor’s Office at [email protected] or [email protected].