Page 12 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988
STUDENT LIFE
sorry
- they
do have
rules i
BY PATRICK STAIGER
Welcome to Dormland: a fantasy
world where the hallway lights are
never turned off, the heat is always
on, the word "privacy" is unknown,
and while you might not be near
your parents, you'll still find plenty
of rules.
Alterations:
Asbestos out,
disabled in
Student
Life
"It's part of the
college experience.
In a university this
size, its important
to call someplace
BY PATRICK STAIGER
Preparing the residence halls for a
new group of students usually in-
volves mass dusting, mopping, and
rearranging furniture.
But last summer the University
had more serious problems to deal
with: ridding the residence halls of
asbestos and making dorms more
accessible to disabled students.
George SanFacon, director of
housing physical properties, said his
department will cover all exposed
asbestos in student rooms and areas
by fall.
Until the early '70s, builders used
asbestos as an insulator because the
substance is fireproof, durable, and
long-lasting. But if asbestos chips
are exposed and crumble, its micro-
scopic fibers can cause lung lesions
and cancer. About three-fourths of all
University buildings now contain
the hazardous insulation.
U -p
home, to have a
place which pro-
vides a support
system," said Leroy Williams, Dir-
ector of Housing Information.
UNIVERSITY Residence Halls
house 10,000 of the university's
35,000 students - 99 percent of
first-year students and 40 percent of
returning sophomores.
For many, residence halls are the
first place to experience life away
from home, and the Housing De-
partment's rules attempt to ensure
the dorm isn't that different. But
most students say it is.
"The reality (in the dorms) is
your roommate will probably be a
manic depressive psycho-moron,
your neighbors will listen to Van
Halen 14 hours a day, the halls will
incessantly be trashed and smell like
your worst pair of socks, the bath-
rooms will look like a biology ex-
periment and the toilet paper will be
out when you really need it... the
food will make you seek psychiatric
help, but by the end of the year
you'll have had a good time," said
Joel VandeVusse, an LSA junior
from East Quad.
GENERALLY, though, resi-
dence hall staff and administrators
lodk at disorder, and student housing
code violations, more seriously.
Archie Andrews, director o f
housing security and student con-
duct, said campus security has con-
fiscated marijuana, innumerable kegs
and bottles, swords, and one .45
Magnum handgun from residence
halls. But the University gets in-
volved in housing affairs only when
ROBIN LOZNAK/Doily
Residential college junior 'Kevin Saari, left, and Jay del-Rusario wash dishes in the Mary
Markley cafeteria. Sound like fun? Most cafeterias pay starting salaries up to $4.50/hr.
Home or headache?
other students' rights have been vio-
lated, Andrews said.
Mary Antieau, South Quad
Building Director, said more serious
problems include tampering with fire
equipment, alcohol, drugs, and re-
lated violence.
"IN 1977, we had 184 fire
alarms," Antieau said. "During the
Ohio State football game, every
time we got a first down, someone
in South Quad pulled the alarm."
Antieau said actions taken by staff
- such as lease termination and fire
alarms that squirt ink when pulled
- have greatly reduced the number
of false alarms.
Antieau said she requests that
students tell a staff person when they
plan to have a party in their rooms.
She said security confiscates any
"mass quantities" of alcohol found in
public areas or when minors are
around, and the students are usually
given a warning.
"Education is more than aca-
demics," Antieau said. "We have a
responsibility to develop a commu-
nity of people that learn to live to-
gether and respect each other."
But some question whether the
University should be in the business
of teaching anything but academics,
and point to University rules, for
example, that forbid sexual inter-
course in residence halls.
"WE ARE ADULTS and
should be treated as such," said En-
gineering sophomore Brian Mulli-
gan, a former East Quad resident.,
But Antieau said cohabitation
rules are enforced only when the
rights of the roommate have been
violated.
"We treat students as adults who
are still learning," Antieau said.
"When students arrive, most think
there is a black and white. They ask
'Which is the best class to take?'
When they leave, they realize there
is a personal interpretation in-
volved... Our job is to reach the
stage where a student enjoys diver-
sity," she said.
"In the Big Ten, students in resi-
dence halls are treated basically as an
adult," Andrews said. "En loco par-
entis has gone out the window."
BOTH ANTIEAU and An-
drews favor the University's new
Discriminatory Acts Policy, though
both think the rules will not have
much effect on dorm policy.
"The code is a separate policy
(from residence hall rules) with broad
parameters," Andrews said.
But Andrews said without the
code the University could not take
action against non-hall residents if
they violate a housing rule. "The
University could not take action
against a student throwing a keg out
the window, for example, unless it
kills somebody, even if it hits a
car," Andrews said.
But not all students take the rules
so seriously.
"THE RULES are necessary
because the school needs to present a
public image of a 'respectable estab-
lishment' on paper," said Scott Lew,
an LSA junior and former East Quad
resident. "It's a good thing they
don't enforce the rules. They'd have
to expel every student and lose mil-
lions in tuition money."
"Reality in the dorms is loud
music, security cops, and sleeping
in," said Grant Wilcox, an
Engineering sophomore and former
Mosher-Jordan resident. "I think the
rules are necessary in case of emer-
gency so the University can cover its
ass legally."
SanFacon said
the University op-
ted to cover the as-
bestos in Univer-
sity buildings in-
stead of removing
it because "con-
tainment" will cost
$2 million while
removal would
have cost $10 mil-
lion.
The decision to
contain the as-.
bestos was initially
This
sum
University
to spend $
to cover E
cancer-cal
bestos ini
ings and d
a response to
community pressure, SanFacon said,
adding that government rules requir-
ing asbestos-free public buildings are
"ambiguous."
Students said they were not in-
formed about the problem until as-
bestos surveying began in fall of
1986. They' were shocked when
workers wearing white "moonsuits"
blocked off restrooms with clear
plastic and bright yellow danger,
signs.
. SanFacon also said the University
is trying to make residence halls
more accessible to disabled students;
ramps have been built at Betsy Bar-
bour and Helen Newberry, and the
University has converted rooms at
Betsy Barbour to make them mote
accessible.
Dar Vander Beek, director of dis-
abled student services, said disabled
students - who comprise seven
percent of the University population
- require special facilities. Rooms
for students in a wheelchair, for ex-
ample, need to be converted so bath-
rooms are accessible, mirrors are
lowered, and levers replace door-
knobs and faucet handles. Hearing
impaired students require visual sig-
nals for fire alarms and telephones.,
Mary Antieau, South Quad
building director, said although
South Quad is "very accessible, we
as a University are shoddy" about
taking care of disabled students.
But Vander Beek said University
housing has been the most cooperat
tive of all University departments ii
improving facilities for disabled stu
dents.
.mer the However, Easi>
Quad still does nom'
planned have a lift for dis
2 million abled students
SanFacon said they
expose d, University is plan
ning to build a lift>
using as- connecting two of,
ts build- the -four levels of
the building, which
)rms. would allow these
students access to a
service elevator.
The elevator would connect these
students with the rest of the build"
ing, but only until the elevato
closes at 7 p.m.
"I doubt it will happen this fall
but it is a priority issue," SanFacon
said.
Deba Patnaik, East Quad building
director, said lack of plumbing blue
prints made the lift's construction
impossible last year.
- Daily news editor Elizabeth
Atkins contributed to this story.
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