Watermargin Co-Op Dorm Reviews — Cornell University

About Watermargin Co-Op

Watermargin is one of Cornell's eight University-owned co-op houses, located at 103 McGraw Place at the edge of West Campus. Founded in fall 1948 by a group of WWII veterans attending Cornell on the GI Bill, it was the first racially integrated, interfaith living unit on a U.S. college campus. The co-op takes its name from the Chinese novel Shui Hu Zhuan ("All Men Are Brothers"), translated to English in 1933 by fellow Cornellian and Nobel laureate Pearl S. Buck. The house adopted the cooperative structure (shared cooking, cleaning, governance) in the late 1960s/early 1970s and went co-ed around 1970. Currently home to ~23 residents in a five-story building. Members participate in weekly governance meetings; admission is via a "mosey" (low-key alternative to Greek rush). Famous early speakers hosted by Watermargin include Eleanor Roosevelt (1948), Langston Hughes, Margaret Mead, Malcolm X, and Marian Anderson; Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Janis Joplin are reported to have visited after concerts.