Page 4 -TheMichiganDaily - Monday,_September_10,_1990
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
I
NOAH FINKEL
Editor in Chief
DAVID SCHWARTZ
Opinion Editor
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons,
signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
Off-campus living
Tenants must be aware of their housing rights
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Reprinted from Sept. 8, 1989
THE FIRST TIME YOU TAKE A
shower in your new apartment, you
discover an unidentifiable type of slime
growing from the ceiling. The carpets
are dirty; paint is chipping off the
walls. The only emergency exit from
the second floor other than jumping is
an unstable-looking ladder propped up
against an exterior wall. You pay your
rent a week. late and your landlord
charges you a $20.00 late fee. You ask
Your landlord to do some repairs and
after two weeks of no response he or
She arrives without notice as you are
ibout to step into your slime-covered
shower.
All of these are violations of your
rights as a tenant.
You as a tenant can control the qual-
Ity of your housing. You can demand
tat your rights be recognized, and that
you receive adequate compensation
when they are not.
Landlords are obligated to provide
tenants with a copy of the Tenants'
Rights handbook published by the city.
Failure to do so is punishable by a fine
as large as $500, but it is incumbent
upon the tenant to complain to the city
Housing Inspection Bureau.
Many buildings in Ann Arbor do not
nieet the housing code due to lack of
maintenance or fire code violations. If
the landlord is unwilling to improve the
situation, tenants can call the Housing
Inspection Bureau.
Landlords are obligated to provide
clean, tenantable housing at the time of
possession. Failure to do so is either
ground for withholding rent until the
dwelling is cleaned or justification for
charging the landlord the cost of
cleaning by deducting the amount from
the rent.
As soon as possible after moving in,
the tenant should compile a list of dam-
ages and assess the condition of the
premises. Landlords are obligated to
provide two copies of an inventory
checklist covering all the parts of the
building that the landlord owns. Many
lists are incomplete, so tenants should
be sure to write in anything not in the
list and keep a copy.
A tenant can withhold rent if a
landlord does not perform required re-
pairs or agreed upon improvements. A
letter containing a complete list of
grievances should be sent by certified
mail to the landlord instead of the rent.
The rent should either be put into es-
crow at a bank or into a separate sav-
ings account until the issue is resolved.
If the tenants are responsible for
paying the heat, city law requires the
landlord to caulk and weather strip all
doors and windows and insulate the at-
tic. Failure to weatherize is grounds for
withholding rent and a complaint
should be filed with the Housing In-
spection Bureau.
Landlords do not have the right to
enter a tenants' residence without rea-
sonable advance notice. Once tenants
have made an agreement such as a lease
and moved in, the apartment is their
home and unauthorized entry consti-
tutes invasion of privacy and trespass-
ing. Landlords frequently charge stu-
dents for cleaning, late rent, and tenant
organizing by keeping security de-
posits. This is illegal. Security deposits
are only supposed to be used for dam-
age not expected during the normal
course of living, or unpaid rent or util-
ity bills. Dirt is not damage. Cleaning
is not repairing.
Security deposits cannot exceed one
and a half month's rent. If the landlord
charges too much deposit, either ask
for it back or move in and deduct it
from the next rent payment.
To get the security deposit back, the
tenant must give the landlord a for-
warding address, in writing, within
four days of moving out.
Within 30 days of the date the tenant
moves out, the landlord must send an
itemized list of any deductions claimed
and the remainder of the security de-
posit, or the full deposit if no charges
are deducted. If the landlord does not
meet this 30-day requirement, the
landlord has then lost all claim to the
security deposit and must return it in
full, unless the withheld money is for
unpaid rent.
To help tenants become more in-
formed, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union
(AATU) has published How to Evict
Your Landlord: An Ann Arbor Ten-
ants' Primer. The book contains a de-
tailed account of tenants' rights and
suggestions of how to prevent potential
abuses. It is available at the AATU.
Read the book. Know your rights.
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Support the 1990 Civil Rights Act:
By Roger Kosson
President Bush has threatened to veto
the Civil Rights Act of 1990, claiming
the bill would force employers to adopt
hiring quotas in order to avoid costly liti-
gation. If President Bush would only ex-
amine the evidence over the past 18 years,
he would realize that this is not a "quota"
bill.
The Civil Rights Act of 1990 seeks to
remedy several 1989 Supreme Court deci-
sions that placed a very high burden on
plaintiffs to prove employment discrimi-
nation. The main source of contention has
been the Court's ruling in Ward's Cove
Packing Company v. Atonio, a decision
which overturned Griggs v. Duke Power
Company and shifted the burden of proof
in employment discrimination cases to the
plaintiff.%
In 1971 Chief Justice Warren Burger
issued the Griggs decision on behalf of a
unanimous Supreme Court. The Court
ruled that once a plaintiff has established a
prima facie case of discrimination, the bur-
den of proof then shifts to the employer to
justify the hiring practice in question as
furthering a business necessity.
The Court went on to define business
necessity as "bearing a significant and
demonstratable relationship to effective
job performance."
In Ward's Cove, the Court overturned
Griggs and ruled that the burden of proof
Kosson, who graduated from the Univer-
sity in May, was president of the College
Democrats. He now serves as a legisla-
tive assistant in the Washington office of
the American Jewish Congress.
should never shift to the employer. In
other words, it is up to the plaintiff to
show that a hiring practice does not further'
a business necessity.
This is problematic on two levels: on a
logical level, it is very difficult to prove a
negative (How does a plaintiff prove that
an employer's hiring practice does not fur-
ther a business necessity?); on a practical
level, the plaintiff does not have access to
the memoranda and other internal docu-
ments that would indicate an employer's
reasons for adopting a certain hiring prac-
tice.
President Bush argues that by forcing
employers to justify their hiring practices,
entails showing the existence of a qualified
minority labor pool, that the employer has
vacancies and is hiring, and that a suffi-
cient number of qualified minorities ap-
plied for jobs.
The Civil Rights Act of 1990 would
not force employers to adopt hiring quotas
for the simple reason that plaintiffs would
still have to establish a prima facie case of
discrimination.
Unfortunately, Representative Carl
Pursell has taken the administration's
rhetoric at face value and voted against the
Civil Rights Act. The bill passed in the
House with 272 votes, 18 short of th ,
votes needed to override a presidentiaO.
Unfortunately, Representative Carl Pursell has taken
the administration's rhetoric at face value and voted
against the Civil Rights Act.
businesses would merely resort to quotas.
The record of the previous 17 years under
Griggs sheds light on the weakness of the
administration's argument.
Opponents of the Civil Rights Act
have not offered one shred of evidence that
under Griggs any employer resorted to hir-
ing quotas (the Civil Rights Act directly
uses the language from Griggs).
Furthermore, if under Griggs it was so
easy for plaintiffs to claim job discrimina-
tion, then we would have seen an explo-
sion of employment discrimination law-
suits.
Such an explosion did not occur, be-
cause a plaintiff still had to establish a
prima facie case of discrimination. This
veto.
If you believe that we need to eradicate
job discrimination from the workplace,
then I urge you to call the White Hous-
(202-456-1313) and urge President Busht.
sign the Civil Rights Act, and call Repre-
sentative Pursell (202-225-4401 or 313-
761-7727) and urge him to support the
bill and override, if necessary, a presiden-
tial veto.
We've come a long way as a nation, to
the point where Douglas Wilder can be
elected Governor of Virginia, a bastion of
the South. But, sadly, employment dis-
crimination is still a reality in America*
The Civil Rights Act of 1990 is crucial to
making equal employment a reality for all
Americans.
Convocation
University attempts to stifle the MSA president
Conspicuously lacking from the
speakers at the 1990 convocation for
first-year students was Michigan
Student Assembly President Jennifer
Van Valey.
In past years, the MSA president
has been allowed to speak at the annual
convocation. This year, the University
administration made the decision to si-
lence Van Valey at the last minute,
without even enough time to remove
her picture from the program.
Van Valey was first asked to speak
at the convocation at the June meeting
of the University's Board of Regents,
and the invitation was confirmed dur-
ing the first week of August. But less
than two weeks before the convoca-
tion, Van Valey was told by the office
of Vice President for Student Services
Mary Anne Swain that she was no
Flonger invited to address the incoming
*students.
The excuse, later given by Swain,
was that the administration had a spe-
cific agenda they wanted to advance at
ie convocation that did not include the
MSA president.
This decision to rescind the invita-
tion to the leader of the student body is
axlear example of the administration's
desire to silent students critical of the
University. Despite the official reason
nut fnrth hv the adminivtratinn the re-
voking of the invitation is indicative of
its greater agenda.
President Duderstadt and his admin-
istration are not interested in hearing
student voices that don't praise their
policies. Barring Van Valey from
speaking is typical of an administration
that has eliminated the University
Council, which was set up to review a
code of student non-academic conduct,
and ignored a student vote against
armed security officers.
The only input the administration
wants from the students is the money
they pay. Students who hope to make
changes within the University often
find their activities restricted or their
voices silenced.
The administration ironically com-
plains that there is no rational avenue
for communication with students when
they disrupt events, as a number of
students did at the convocation. Yet the
protest at the convocation was the only
recourse left to students who still
wanted their voices heard.
MSA is the representative student
voice, yet the administration refuses to
even let its leader address the entering
class. It's difficult to imagine how a
University which ostensibly exists to
serve students can fulfill its mission
without the input of student leaders.
MADD speaks out
To the Editor:
I would like to applaud the recent ac-
tion of the Ann Arbor school district to
ban alcohol consumption in the parking
areas of Pioneer High School. Although
this may be difficult to enforce, we need to
send a clear message to our high school
students that all sporting activities don't
automatically go hand in hand with alco-
holic beverages.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
(MADD) is not against drinking, but the
mixture of drinking, drugs and driving.
Designated drivers for adults who choose
to drink is one way to help save lives and
reduce injuries. However, when adult
drinking is in a high school facility, we
need to send a clearer message to those un-
der 21, as well as others, that any drinking
and driving can and does have negative
consequences.
The resulting injuries in the stadiums
or on the road are not worth the pre-and
post partying of the games.
One of our drunk driving victims was
killed on I-94 when he was struck by a
drunk driver leaving a University of
Michigan football game. This driver had a
-blood alcohol level of .10, considered
legally drunk in Michigan, three hours af-
ter the crash occurred. This would indicate
that his blood alcohol level at the time of
the crash would have been considerably
higher.
It's a game of life that MADD is con-
'U' official denies
Hash Bash incident
To the Editor:
I generally admire David Schwartz's ar-
guments even when I disagree with them,
as I frequently do.
But in his Viewpoint (9/7/90) he in-
vents a story concerning me that simply
never took place. He alleges that during
Hash Bash last year I tried to convince an
Ann Arbor police officer to stop the activ-
ity and then turned to him and said, "Next
year will be different."
That is a complete and utter lie.
I did see Schwartz at the Hash Bash, we
did have a discussion about it, but it con-
cerned the legal decision the judge used to
rule for the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and
against the University.
I never talked to a police officer about
stopping the demonstration - no one
who knows me could possibly believe{10
would ever do such a thing! And I cer-
tainly never implied that the University
would use police to interfere with free
speech.
I certainly appreciate David's right to
disagree with me on the wisdom of the
University having deputized police offi-
cers. I can tolerate his sophomoric attack
on me as "director of propaganda." But I
cannot allow a complete fabrication to go
unchallenged.
Let us debate this issue in an open and
forthright manner.
Walter Harrison
Executive Director
Office of University Relations
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