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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, March 17, 1977
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ARBOR FOREST, TRAVER KNOLL HIT
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A
tale of two strikes
By ANNE GERTISER
While Summit Hamilton Mari-
agement Company appears onj
the verge of signing a contract
with striking tenants in the Ar-
bor Forest complex, Traver-
Knoll residents face a bitter le-
gal battle with the apartments'
owners before two countersuits
can be resolved.
Summit-Hamilton is expected
to sign a contract already ap-
proved by Arbor Forest tenants
that would end a two-month-old
strike against the company.
"AS FAR AS I know there are
just legal technicalities to be
taken care of," said Jim Garcia
of the Tenants Union (TU).
The agreement was approved
by tenants two weeks ago. Rep-
resentatives for Summit-Hamil-
ton have given no explanation
for their delay in signing the
contract.
Once the pact is signed, ten-
ants will receive a two-month
rent compensation. Summit-
Hainilton- also has agreed to
comoletely rebuild one of its
heating systems.
THE TENANTS of Arbor For-
est, 721 S. Forest. went on strike
in January, complaining of in-
adequate heat and hot water in
the building. Some tenants werej
living in apartments where the
temperature was usually below1
55 degrees during the winter to respond to those claims
months, according to TU. ')thers Greenspon has allowed him ad-
could not get hot water for ditional time to make a re-
showers because of the faulty sponse.
hot water system. "Any delay is to our advan-
Meanwhile, a motion made tage. Each case is tried bepar-
Tuesday by the attorney repre- ately. There are 45 cases and
senting Traver-Knoll Apart- probably about one case will be
ments to withdraw from the tried a week. It might be-a year
trials of striking tenants has de- from now until all the cases
layed legal action. are tried. People will be living
The attorney, Jacob Fahrner, there months and months and
explained in his request that he she (Snyder) won't be re :eiv-
had reached a disagreement ing any money," Greenspon ex-
with the plaintiff which would plained.
affect his ability to represent The tenants want Traver-
her. Knoll to comply with housing
"TRANSLATED, that means codes, stabilize rents at their
Esther Snyder (owner 3f Trav- lowest present level, and pro-
er-Knoll) hasn't paid him or vide a twenty-four hour serv-
hasn't paid him enough,'' Don ice for emergency - problems.
.Greenspon, attorney for the ten- Tenants have notified Fahrner
ants, explained. of their willingness to negotiate
Traver-Knoll has filed siuit a settlement to end the rent
against 28 tenants, who have strike, the Tenants Union re-
been withholding rent since De- ports.
cember, and will probably file In October, the City Building
suit against 17 additional ten- Deoartment notified Trwer-
ants, Greenspon said. Knoll tenants that the complex's
"It's legal to pay into escrow Certificate of Occupancy had
but the question is if it is justi- been susoended, thus prohibiting
fied." he said. "We feel that the owner from renting out any
all the rent strikers have meri- aoartments. In late December,
torious grounds." many tenants placed their Janu-
ary rent in escrow or with the
THE TENANTS have filed city. Since that time, however,
counter-suit against Traver- Traver-Knoll has been granted
I Knoll. Fahrner was not pre- a temporary Certificate of Oc-
'nared at the March 15 hearing i cupancy.
Prof's appeal wins tenure
(Continued from Page 1)
impressed by the students' ac-
tion, but noted that their suc-
cess in helping obtain the re-
versal "doesn't mean that it
(studentaction) would always
work." Had it not been for the '
request by the English Depart-
ment, °she said, the results of '
students efforts would have been!
"insignificant."
Professor Charles Whitke, a
member of the Executive Com-
mittee, expressed no surprise at
the role of the students. "Noth-
ing surprises me any more," he
said. "I've been at this Univer-'
sity for a long time."
Supporters of Alexander, ma-r
ny of them students, wrote over
100 letters to the Executive1
Committee. At least three mem-
bers of the committee read ev-
ery letter.
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
member Alan Howes presented,
the appeal, reading excerpts
from some of the letters.
Mueller explained the action
of the Executive Committee up-
on receipt of the appeal: "The
Executive Committee discussed
his teaching and, the substance
of his service and his publica-
tions. The whole-thing got hash-
ed over again to make, sure
there was a solid foundation.
All aspects of the case were
reconsidered.
"This is not a popularity con-
test," she added. "It was a very
serious discussion on the part
of the committee members."
ORDINARILY, there are three
criteria governing the granting
or denial of tenure. One is ser-
vice - this encompasses me#n-
bership on University or aca-
demic committees. The second
area is scholarship, judged in
terms of publication. The third
is teaching ability.
"The presumption is that a
person should engage in, all
three areas," Mueller explain-
ed, "although it has to be real-
ized if a person is not a good
scholar, they can't train their
students adequately, and can't
be a good teacher."
Alexander's work in the Doc-
tor of Arts program, a project
whereby community college in-
structors take classes in teach-
ing humanities and composition
at the community college level,
eventually proved a factor in
winning the reversal,
A letter to the committee from
History of Art professor Diane
Kirkpatrick praising Alexan-
der's role in establishing a film
studies program at the Univer-
sity, also proved influential- in
the tenure decision.
New county project
averts flood threats
(Continued from Page 1)
BLESSING PLANS to estab-'
lish an ongoing maintenance
program that he feels is neces-
sary to keep the county's 350
drains running efficiently and'
to increase the availability of
information concerning drain
'projects to officials and to the
public.
"Part of the problem (of pre-
vious commissions) was a lackl
of systems for handing various'
things in the office," Blessing
said. "Part of my goals has
been the establishing of sys-
tems that implement the val-.
ues I have concerning ecology."
Most of the countys ongoing
drainage projects are in the
Ann Arbor-Pittsfield area and
were petitioned by the city of
Ann Arbor to the drain commis-
sion in 1968.
AMONG THE PROJECTS pe-
titioned were the Traver Creek'
and the Allen Creek projects in
the Ann Arbor area. Blessing
said because of postponed deci-
sions and numerous delays,
project planning "started to
slow down, and slow down, and
slow down." Construction has
not begun on either of the two
projects.
The proposed projects are a
result of the massive flooding
the county has experienced in
recent years. In 1968, flood wa-
R RUSSIAN AND f
EAN STUDIES
I- -
tens left county residents hlme-
less or with high property loss-
es. Last year, melting snow and
heavy soring rains washed out
several homes, roads, including
the Huron Bridge where the
Huron River hWad overflowed.
Blessing said he is trying to
get action on these projects by
phasing the program's costs and
constructing several of the five
projects at one time instead of
working on them individually
as past commissioner's had
done.
"THERE IS. ONLY so much
taxpayers can afford each
year," Blessing said. "The phas-
ing o the projects help ease
the costs. We try to work on
each of the projects to provide
some (drain) relief now and
serve as many people as we
can in the limits of resources."
Construction is now being
completed on the $400,000 first
phase of the $4-S million Swift
Run Drain project in Pittsfield.
Blessing said that many of
the engineers who worked on
the drain projects since 1968
are still unpaid. He said that
the commission and the city are
working on ways to solve the
problem but added that until
the project bonds are sold, there
is no available money to pay
the engineers.
GEO to'
strike
(Continued from Page 1)
MERC. If GEO wins the ULP,
a strike is still planned with
hopes of gaining demands in
next year's contract.
"I CAN'T GUESS on the rela-
tive popularity of either option,"
said union President Doug Mo-
ran. "There are alsor-variations
to both alternatives, all of which
will be discussed."
GEO members will also con-
sider plans to stage a Friday
morning rally in front of the
Administration Building to dem-
onstrate their dissatisfaction
with the administration.
"We are fed up of waiting
for the University to make any
efforts at negotiating," said
GEOeExecutive Committee
member Oliver Carston. "We
have been waiting long enough."
Order
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