City council approves
addition to sorority
By SUSAN GRANT
The Ann Arbor City Council gave
final approval late Monday night for a
controversial 4,400-foot additon to the
Collegiate Sorosis sorority.
Neighbors of the newly-purchased
house at 903 Lincoln Ave. have said
the addition would destroy the balan-
ce between single-family homes and
group dwellings.
"WHEN green space goes and one
side of the street becomes fraternity
row, the whole neighborhood is
irrevocably changed," said James
Robinson of 911 Olivia.
Another neighbor, Morley Witus of
4818 Lincoln, said that virtually every
family home in the area could be con-
verted to group housing because of the
ambiguity of the zoning law.
Several council members - in-
cluding some who approved the
sorority's site plan, said they were
concerned abut the vagaries in the
zoning laws, which were changed last
year.
UNDER the original zoning laws, a
house had to contain 5,000 square feet
- excluding the basement and the at-
tic - in order to be expanded for
group use.
But last year's change included
basements and attics in the
measurements if they are "habitable
space," but there is disagreement
about what that means.
Councilmember Larry Hunter (D-
First Ward) noted that the former
owner could have built the addion
without getting approval from the
planning commission or the council
and then sold the house to the sorority.
BECAUSE of the ambiguities,
Mayor Edward Pierce told the neigh-
bors that they could challenge the
council's decision in court.
The approved plan will house 39
students and a house director. Coun-
cilmember Kathy Edgren (D-Fifth
Ward), who voted for the plan, said
that "this site plan will provide affor-
dable housing for 40 students within
walking distance to the campus."
Because the neighbors had said that
the property will add to the already
congested street parking, the plan in-
cludes 10 additional parking spaces.
Only six of these spaces will be given
to members of the sorority, and the
other four spaces will be reserved for
guests. The sorority also has per-
mission from the Delta Sigma Delta
fraternity to use its parking for for
special occasions.
WHEN collegiate Sorosis
reorganized in 1980, it rented the
Alpha Epsilon Phi house at 1620 Cam-
bridge, but the lease ran out in May
and the fraternity moved back in. picture perfect
Collegiate Sorosis will not build the
additon until next year because the An inquiring photographer stops to p
additon would not be ready for fall, so andtM ign
the sorority will rent the Alpha Xi an the
Delta house across the street.
The neighbors plan to contest the
council's decision and take it to court.
Gerold Lax, the sorority's attorney,
said the neighbors will not win the (ContinuedfromPage1)u
case.t
Daily Photo by DAN HABIB
hotograph the fountain that stands between the Modern Languages Building
be paid, Josephson says
.p MSA asks for fee bike
By KERY MURAKAMI
The Michigan Student Assembly
decided last night to ask the Board of
Regents later this month for a 32-cent
per student increase in fees next term
and a 33-cent per student increase the
following term.
If approved, students would then
pay $5.07 per term in mandatory fees
to the assembly in the 1985-86 school
year and $5.40 per term for 1986-87.
MSA PRESIDENT Paul Josephson
said the increases would be used
mostly to cover an estimated 6 per-
cent inflation rate. Among other in-
creases, Josephson said that Student
Legal Services would receive a 19-
cent per student increase and the
Students Tenant Union would get 5
cents per student more next year.
Student Legal Services' increases,
Josephson said, would be used to
cover a court settlement the group
made with its former director after he
filed suit alleging that seven members
of the services made inflammatory,
statements at a hearing that led to his
dismissal.
SLS provides a low-cost legal ser-
vices for students.
The increase for the Tenants'
Union, Josephson said, would be used
to increase the salary of its director
Jeff Ditz. "We wanted to bring him up
to scale with other tenant advocates,"
Josephson said.
THE UNION provides several ser-
vices for students, including past
histories of landlords and organizing
rent strikes. The union was also
responsible last year for pushing the
WARM proposal on the city ballot.
MSA hopes to take in $93,665 in 1985-
86, and $98,680 in 1986-87. In com-
parison, SLS would get $245,245 in
1985-86 and $257,730 in 1986-87. The
disproportionate cost of SLS,
Josephson said, is due to the five full-
time attorneys SLS hires.
The proposals go to the executive
officers today for approval before
being sent to the regents for a vote at
their monthly meeting in two weeks.
Josephson said he doesn't expect
much opposition to the proposals.
tmat neisfaxing oniy eign crems
next term to devote himself to the
assembly. "I couldn't do this if my
parents weren't well-off," he said,
pointing out that students taking
fewer than twelve credits are not
eligible for student aid.
UNDER his plan, which will be
discussed by MSA's newly-formed
ad hoc committee to examine the
assembly's weaknesses, the
executive officers - the president,
vice-president, and treasurer -
and the ten committee chairmen
would receive $30 either in salary
or some other alternative.
One other way, according to
Josephson, would be for the
assembly to pay the $30 directly in-
to a student's tuition account.
"This is really what the money
would be for," Josephson said, "to
help pay for their education."
The fate of his idea rests with the
students, Josephson said. The idea
will be opened up for either a
student poll in the fall or more
likely, as a referendum item in
next April's MSA election ballot,
he said.
I DON'T know how students are
going to take this," Josephson
said. "It's going to be one of those
things that either you love or hate.
Some may perceive it like when
Congress votes themselves a
raise."
But Josephson stresses that if it
is enacted it wouldn't take effect
until the next assembly takes of-
fice. Josephson, however, is
eligible to run for re-election.
The idea, now in its earliest
stage, has already encountered
some opposition from past and
present members of the assembly.
SCOTT Page, last year's
president, said that he would op-
pose the plan if he were a student
because "people on the assembly
should not be making a profit for
serving on the government."
Page said that MSA should pick
up the costs of being a represen-
tative, such as travel expenses and
meals if a representative has to
miss a meal at the dorm. "They
shouldn't make any money from
the assembly, but it shouldn't have
to cost them to be on the assem-
bly," Page said.
Eric Schnaufer, a graduate
student on the assembly, echoed
Page's concerns, saying that he was
worried that students would run
for the assembly to make money
instead of "some greater desire to
help his fellow student."
ON THE other hand, Schnaufer
added that "the way things are
now, the assembly is made up of
white, upper-middle class, well-off
students."
Josephson also downplays the
possible problem of represen-
tatives running for the "wrong
reasons," saying that becoming a
member of the assembly does not
guarantee a post as committee
chairman. Chairs aresusually elec-
ted by the full assembly at the
beginning of each term.
Further opposition to the plan
comes from Richard Layman,
another member of the ad hoc
committee. Layman says the
"money could be spent on better
things; the cost of paying our
members shouldn't be pushed on
the students."
UNDER Josephson's plan, it
would cost the assembly an ad-
ditional $390 a week from MSA
funds. How the assembly would
meet this additional burden is one
of the things the ad hoc committee
will discuss, Josephson said, but
the increase could be met with a
five-cent increase in student fees.
Students now pay $5 in mandatory
fees to MSA per term.
"Five cents a term isn't that big
a sacrifice," Josephson said.
If students accept the plan, the
assembly would have to make two
changes in its charter, before it
can take effect in the spring of
1986, Josephson said. First the
assembly would have to remove
one clause which prohibits
representatives from being em-
ployed by the assembly, then adda
second part saying that the officers
and chairmen would be paid.
Josephson said one factor that
has to be resolved is some sort of
set of requirements chairmen
would have to meet in order to be
paid.
MSA is currently the only student
government in the Big Ten and the
Ivy League that doesn't pay any of
its representatives.
Police Notes
Locker broken into
The lock was cut on a storage locker
in a home in the 1300 block of South
University sometime between May 30
and 2 p.m. on Monday. Two
typewriters and some luggage, valued
at less than $575, were taken, police
said.
-Laura Bischoff
SUB CRIBE!
Cal 764-0558