Page 8B THE MICHIGAN DAILY NEW STUDENTEDITION PERSPECTIVES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1994 9 Ann Arbor Tenants Union A2 Tenants Union: 'Don't let anyone fool you' Speak Out Speakers and protestors regularly gather on the Diag to address the injustices pervading the world. You and 40,000 others are reading this (impressive, isn't it?) HUMANE SOCIETYOAF HURON VALLEY By PATTRICE MAURER v The Ann Arbor Tenants UnionH (AATU) has three warnings and ane invitation for you. Don't let landlordsp fool you.-t Within months of your arrival one campus, landlords will start pressur-n ing you to sign a lease for the nextd year. If you're like most students, the first lease you sign will also be the t first contract you sign. If you're like t most students, you are not particu-n larly familiar with your rights as a ten- ant or with the Ann Arbor housing mar- It is in the ket. And, if you're administra like most students, you are not yet used best intere to negotiating with provide as adults as equals and are likely to see a possible f landlord as an au- thority figure rather a price as than as a person try- ing to make money by selling you A something. Landlords know all of this t and will use these and other consider-h ations to try to get you to make agree-o ments that are not in your best interests. The most common ways that land-u lords mislead students include secu-l rity deposit fraud and illegal lease b clauses (including punitive late fees,f fictitious "discounts," and the ever- popular cleaning deposit). Failure to perform necessary repairs, invasions of privacy and inadequate heat/weath-t erization are other common problemst suffered by student tenants.R The good news is that you cana protect yourself. Since 1968, AATUF has been working to improve housing conditions in Ann Arbor and increase tenants' rights. The result is a set ofp strong housing codes and pro-tenant laws that are there to protect you.' AATU provides tenant services that are free to you as a student. Don't Let the 'U' Fool You For as long as you live in a dormp or other University housing, the Uni- versity is your landlord. Despite the University's repeated protestations,h the attorney general has held thatv the University must follow all statee health and safety codes - includ- ing the housing code. That means that most of the rights and remedies available to other tenants are also0 available to you.p Of course, University administra- tors would prefer for you not to knowi that. In fact, they would prefer for yout not to think of them as "landlords" at all. Administrators prefer to portrayf themselves as substitute parents who, out of the kindness of their hearts, doe what's best for you. In fact, while many individual ad- ministrators are themselves nice r people, the administrative system is not set up to serve the needs of stu- dents. Students are simply consumers0 of services (housing, education, etc.)p that the University provides - for ap price. It is in the administration's besta interest to provide as little as possible for as high a price as possible. Howu else are they going to afford salariesb like Vice President for Student Af-i fairs Maureen A. Hartford's annual take of $134,400?h It is also in the University's best interest to maintain good relations i E i with the local business community. Here, again, students lose out. For example, the University's Off-Cam- pus Housing Office, which pretends o be a service for students, in fact. exists primarily to help landlords make more money by renting to docile stu- dent tenants. AATU has campaigned to force 9 he University to be more responsible to the students it does house and to be more accountable for its effect on the local housing market. Not sur- prisingly. the University has ation's often struck back against the est to AATU, at one S little as point going so far as to threaten or as high academic sane-. - Lions against possible. students in- volved in AATU actions. Lately, administra-, ors have abandoned such heavy- handed forms of repression in favor, of more subtle and secretive suppres- sion. For example, Hartford recently * used her considerable influence to lobby the Michigan Student Assem- bly (the student government) to stop; funding the AATU. Don't Let MSA Fool You One would think that a student government would resist such at- tempts at control by the administra-.5 tion. But, members of the dominant Michigan Party seem to have eagerly. accepted these suggestions from Hartford's office. The reward? Schol- arships for MSA officers. But, perhaps we shouldn't be sur- prised by this, Over the years, the as-. sembly has become less representative of the whole of the student body as. fewer students vote in MSA elections. This would not matter much except that MSA does have one significant piece of power - the authority to dis- tribute student fee money. Even though fewer students vote in MSA elections than use AATU ser- vices, the current MSA officers plan to end the decade-long practice of fund- ing AATU services to students. They plan to do this even though'. the students who approved the amount of the current student fee clearly ex- pectedthat part ofitwouldgotoAATU. And how will they spend the money instead? We can look at their past ac- tions for a clue. Last summer, they bought new furniture for their own offices. Then'' they bought expensive new comput- - ers for MSA use. This summer they're putting new carpet into their offices. Maybe an executive dining room is next. -r. An Invitation , We invite you to stop by our office' on the fourth floor in the Union and pick up a tenants' rights information packet. AATU services are free to you as a student ... for now. Also, get involved in AATU. Vol- unteers and workstudy students are a big part of everything the AATU does,'' including tenant counseling, newslet- ter writing, radio show production and legislative research. -Maurer is head of AA TU s 0 0 CHERR IILI, IIDI XiOR() COME HANG OUT WITH THE ANIMALS... WALK THE DOGS -VOLUNTEER FOR TH E S SHELTER -ADOPT AN ANIMAL -ON CAMPUS ORIENTATION x FOR VOLUNTEERS i I- HUMANE 662-5585 SOCIETY 3100 CHERRY HILL ROA HURON ANN ARBOR, MI 48105 VALLEY* (.R' ' NRI 2#wohv.. 14rOt Work-Study and I _. ':; y Academic Credit, Volunteer Positions available Call 764-2547 for details. mmmmmmw ii " w 40 " I i . i i 1 i.. , t UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDICAL. 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