.hanging Student Housing Scene
An Intensive Inspection Program Has Improved
City Housing -But Much Remains To Be Accomplished
By DAVID TARR
IT WAS early in the morning of
a late October clay in 1954 that
the Ann Arbor fire department
was called to extinguish a fire in
an apartment house near South
Quadrangle.
Two women died in the blaze, a
University graduate student and
her landlady. And it was, further,
the third fire catastrophe in the
city in less than eight months and
the one that was the impetus for
an active housing inspection pro-
gram.
Today, almost four years later,
the condition of Ann Arbor and
University - controlled housing is
much improved. But there is still
considerable room for improve-
ment.
The supply of housing, an im-
portant element in itself, is closely
tied to the physical condition of
Ann Arbor and University dWell-
ings. Some observers claim that
Improved city housing and even
the entire future of the University
rests on the supply of housing in
the Ann Arbor area.
THE CITY began an intensive
inspection program in the fall
of 1954, hiring a full-time inspec-
tor the following January.
The responsibility of the city
under state law is to inspect all
multiple dwellings (any dwelling
accommodating four or more,
people). If a dwelling complies,
David Tarr is the newly ap-
pointed features-magazine edi-
for of the Daily.
with state and local building laws,
the owner is issued a certificate of
compliance by the city.
Of the 1800 buildings classified
as multiple dwellings in the city,
John E. Ryan, director of the Ann
Arbor Department of Building and
Safety Engineering, says 900 have
been inspected and some 300 is-
sued certificates of compliance.
Ryan said 150 more are nearly
ready for certification with only.
inspection for correction of minor
violations remaining. Work to cor-
rect more serious violations is be-
ing done on another 450.
A T AN inspection rate of 300
buildings per year, which Ryan
says is an average, it will take
three more years for the city to
have inspected all multiple dwell-
ing housing. It is expected to take
considerably longer before a size-
able percentage of the housing
can be issued certificates of com-
pliance.
These figures do not include the
2,000 apartment ,units built since
1954, all of which are in buildings
that were issued certificates before
being becupied.
There is, however, an inherent
weakness in certificates of occu-
pancy. Prof. William W. Joy, Uni-
versity director of environmental
health, says a real. problem in
rental housing is that the housing
law requires only minimal stan-
dards.
HE USES as an example the lack
. of a requirement for hot water
in an apartment.
Prof. Joy lists two major prob-
lems that he believes are major,
TWO DIED HERE-The death of two women, one a--University
student, in a fire in this house in 1954 started a concentrated drive
to improve the condition of Ann Arbor housing.
causes of sub-standard housing in
Ann Arbor:
1) An effort by landlords to
change rooms into apartments in
order to keep up with the growing
popularity of the latter over the
former. He said many of the alter-
ations have been made in buildings
"that simply were not suited to
that purpose."
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2) Absentee landlordism. Prof.
Joy says that all rooms in a build-
ing are rented but none of the
occupants have any responsibility
for taking care of the place and,
as a result, "everybody's business
becomes nobody's business."
While the figures Ryan's office
compile are revealing for all city
housing, they do not tell the story
of student off-campus housing
(private housing not under Uni-
versity supervision).
ACCURATE, current figures on
the status of such student hous-
ing are not available. The last time
University administrators broke
down off-campus housing figures
was a year ago using information
from 1955 registration cards, sup-
plemented by women's registration
cards in 1956. Using statistical
methods, administrators have re-
cently made rough corrections in
the original figures.
These figures show 7,862 stu-
dents living in rooming houses and
apartments in the city, 4,510 of
which were in multiple dwellings
and 3,352 in non-multiple dwell-
ings.
Some 3,410 students were living
in apartments and 4,452 in room-
ing houses and at home. Of the.
2,686 rooming houses and apart-
ment buildings used by students,
526 were multiple and 2,160 non-
multiple.
SO ONLY a fraction of the num-
ber of buildings used by stu-
dents are subject to required in-
spection by the city '(multiple,
dwellings).
A lack of balance can also be
seen between the number of stu-1
dents living in housing subject,
and-not subject to inspection.
With the assistance of the city,
the University also compiled fig-
ures on the status of inspection
and compliance to regulations of
off-campus student housing.
Of the 526 multiple dwellingsa
housing- students, 358 have been
inspected. Of the 2160 non-mul-
tiple dwellings, 302 have been in-
spected. The relatively low numberl
here is because the city inspects'
this type of dwelling only on re-
quest from the owner or complaint
from the occupant.
have major violations while 78O had
been' issued, certificates with 33
more ready for certification.
University officials limit their
work in environmental health
primarily to University supervised
housing. ,
This' includes dormitories, af-
filiated houses, co-ops and League
Houses. However, in recent months
the University has initiated a
plan to assist students living in
off-campus housing.
AILIATED housing has pre-
sented the most serious prob-
lem in environmental health in
recent years. Ryan said fraternities
used to be badly overcrowded and
in very poor condition but added
that today the situation is vastly
improved.
Prof. Joy agrees, adding that
the fraternities have cooperated
"wonderfully" in correcting viola-
tions of housing regulations.
A few fraternities have their
improvement -work completed,
Prof. Joy said, and all have-plans
for correcting the major viola-
tions by next fall.
While Ryan's office is legally
responsible for the condition of all
housing in the city, authority to
inspect University supervised
housing, such as fraternities, so-
rorities and League Houses and
order corrections made has been
delegated to Prof. Joy's office.
The city respects the inspection
reports of the University and does
not conduct routine inspections on
its own in this type of housing.
Prof. Joy said his office works
closely with the city, however.
A CONCENTRATED inspection
program in University super-
vised housing has been carried on
for the past one and one-half
years.
Prof. Joy said his office is com-
pleting a cycle of inspection of
fraternities and is beginning one
in sororities. He tries to make one
good inspection and two follow-ups
per year in each housing unit.
Improvements in most other
types of housing have been good,
Prof. Joy said. However, he added
that "considerable work needs to
be done in League Houses."
These have been inspected, he
said, and most have made some
improvements. But limited re-
sources, primarily, have prevented
changes in this area from being
quite as rapid as in some other
areas, Prof. Joy explained.
AST JANUARY, the University
began a program that may
eventually move it deeply into
influencing the condition of pri-
vate housing. Officials offered stu-
dents and Ann Arbor landlords
rental contracts.
A completely voluntary program,
it will provide any landlord, who
has been certified by the- city as
complying with the state housing
-laws and city ordinances, contracts
which can then be offered to
tenants. The program initially .is
concerned with rooms and not
apartments and with multiple-
dwellings which the city has legal
responsibility to inspect.
The rental agreements will
"specify periods of occupancy,
conditions of quarters and other
matters" a University official said
in announcing the program.
The response to the program has
pleased administrators. Of the 95
landlords to which the plan was
offered, 74 have accepted. These
74 landlords house 522 students.
Assistant Dean of Me Karl
Streiff said the program "is def-
initely not a control program. We
do not wish to bring student offf-
campus housing under closer Uni-
versity control but only help to
make the - relationship between
landlord and student a fpore satis-
factory one."
Although the program presently
covers ,nly a small area of off..
By RALPH LANGER
A MONG the armchair militarists
the current run of 'prognosti-
cations has extensive employment
of nuclear missiles in the near
future completely replacing con-
ventional weapons.
The opinions of experts, how-
ever, are not quite of this order.
There is agreement among the
three University military science
department heads that there will
be no drastic or revolutionary
changes in the Army, Navy, or Air
Force as a result of missile devel-
opment and modern technology-
at least not in the near future.
Interviews with three military
science professors indicate that
while the three services are re-
organizing around nuclear con-
cepts, the changes are being made
gradually and without large-scale
scrapping of present equipment.
The three men, Col. Ernest A. H.
Woodman, Army; Capt. Philip W.
Mothersill, Navy; and Lt. -Col. Al-
attack must be coupled with a land
advance in Europe."
The Navy, which is also being
reorganized for atomic combat, is
currently building the' first atom-
powered, all-missile surface crus-
er. Captain Mothersill emphasized,
however, that "it will be 10 to 20
years before all of the old ships
are gone." He explained that "we
are going to need all of them and
will employ them with ever-im-
proving tactics and weapons."
CAPTAIN Mothersill said that
missiles are being installed
aboard more and more ships as
soon as. the new missile systems
and the ships are ready. Finances
are the big problem, he said.
The Captain added that it would
be a long time before conventional
weapons are completely outmoded.
"The gun is obsolete now," he said,
"but useful in a cold war situa-
tion." He said that the Navy, by a
show of strength, can be the de-
IMPROVED MODEL -This Nike Hercules, an Jmproved model of the 200-mile Nike that is installed
around key cities and installations in the United States. This is a ground-to-air missile that will
strike enemy planes coming in for attack on the protected area. Radar controlled, the Nike series
is the most widely employed Army missile presently in use.
Defense :Missiles or G,,uns?
The Armed-
Forces
analyst Hanson W. Baldwin.
(Continued on Next Page)
Are Changing To New Concepts,
Collins
I
S
Have you
But Conventional Weapons Have Not Been Outmoded
THE AIR FORCE Chief of Staff,
General Thomas D. White,
summed up the Air Force's posi-
tion before a meeting of the Na-
tional Press Club last November.
"Manned and unmanned bombers
and missiles join together in com-
patible and complementary roles
'to form a functionally complete
system," he said.
"The Navy is, pre-eminently, a,
Navy of nuclear power," says an
article in a recent national maga-
zine by Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist and noted military
seen
The article, entitled "Is the
Navy Obsolete," explained thai
the "U.S. Navy is the first of the
services to have every functional
type of missile there is in opera-
tion or production." The Navy now
has an auxiliary continental air
defense role, as well as a strategic
bombing role. The direct influence
of sea power upon land power now
extends thousands of miles beyond
the high-water mirk and - the
range of a rifled gun," the article
continues.)
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REGULUS Hl-The Navy's surface-to-surface, supersonic, jet-
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J
fred D. Belsma, Air Force, enum-
erated the current and antici-
pated changes in their respective
branches.N
COLONEL Woodman remarked
that while "the army is now
being reorganized to fight an
atomic war.., our basic premise,
that it is imperative to take and
hold the ground in order to gain
a victory, is still valid. This cannot
be done by flying over and drop-
ping bombs," he added. "Because
when all of this is over the enemy
can still come out of its holes and
must be controlled. The foot sol-
dier is still the best and only waym
to accomplish this," Col. Wood-
MAIN AT LIBERTY ANN ARBOR
ciding factor in a crisis area such
as China or Egypt. Atomic weapons
are unnecessary in these situa-
tions, Captain Mothersill said.
Air F0orce Colonel Belsma ex-
plained that a missile is equivalent
to an unmanned bomber and
therefore is not radically different,
in terms of tactics, from manned
bombers. "The Air Force will prob-
ably maintain-operational control
of long-range missiles since we
have the most experience and are
the most logical people to have
the weapons that are designed to
hit the enemy deep in his own ter-
ritory," Colonel Belsma observed.
"The Strategic Air Command
will have missiles gradually ab-
sorbed into its program, rather
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AT THE time of the compilation
of the information there were
major violations in 204 of the 3581
multiple dwellings inspected by the
city. Ninty of this 358 had been