History Repeats: UC Co-op s Legendary Service Ethic 

When University of Cincinnati alumnus

John Sherman

, who graduated in 1938,

couldn’t find a co-op job placement during the Great Depression

, he decided to take some time off.

He went camping in Michigan.

Then, the local electric utility called his UC co-op placement officer, Ralph Van Wye, with an opening.

Sherman said, “Professor [Ralph] Van Wye visited our German landlords, but they didn’t know where we were exactly. They said my mother had a friend named Rowena down the street. Then, Professor Van Wye visited Rowena, and she said she didn’t know where we were but that I had a friend named St. Clair in town.

“Professor Van Wye proceeded to call every St. Clair in the phone book till he found my friend. My friend told him that we were up at Green Lake in Michigan. So, then, he called up the post office at Bendon, Mich., where our mail came to, and told the postman to go down to our cottage and find me.

“The next thing I know, the postman came to our cottage and told me, ‘Be at the post office in Bendon tomorrow at noon. You’re going to receive a long-distance call.’ So, I did it, and when Professor Van Wye gets me on the phone, he’s yelling, ‘

Where the hell have you been? Do you want a co-op job or not?

I said, ‘Heck yes!’ and returned to Cincinnati right away.”

Co-op is where students alternate quarters or semesters of paid, professional work related directly to their majors with quarters or semesters in the classroom. UC, the global founder of co-op, today houses the country’s largest co-op program at any public institution in the United States. UC’s co-op is ranked in the nation’s Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report.

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