Landlord vents on fire code debacle

To the Editors:

Rising junior and senior students at Oberlin College received a letter dated December 10, 1998 from acting Dean of Students Deborah McNish.

This letter concerns students' options to live off-campus during the coming year, 1999 to 2000, and forbids these students to sign leases with landlords who do not possess a valid rooming house license for that year. Regulated rooming houses are properties with five or more tenants not related by blood, marriage or domestic partnership.

This presents a considerable problem for several owners. Nine houses are affected at present. We had licenses. We obtained them over the last ten or more years by applying through the Oberlin City Planning Commission, and by being approved by that body after issues of space, fire safety, etc. had been resolved.

The City of Oberlin has since denied the renewal of our licenses for reasons patently illegal. We have appealed. The Planning Commission denied the appeals of Betty Baxter, Glenn Gall and Van Kirkendall on November 19, 1998. Why? Did anyone bother to ask? Because City Solicitor Eric Severs specifically instructed said commission to DISREGARD the fact that these property owners had received licenses from the city in the past and that they have been operating legally for years.

The regulations used by the commission when their licenses were issued were to be DISREGARDED, and new ones were to be used instead,

The commission was enjoined to look at what the city wished it to see, and to DISREGARD what is contrary to the city's case, but what is nevertheless true.

On Feb. 18 my own appeal to the Planning Commission will take place. I may also be similarly struck down. If so, the commission will have again blatantly upheld the illegal tactics of the city and its representatives.

The problem with all this is that information has been passed from the city to the College without checking out the facts. We operate safe properties in the view of the State Board of Building Appeals. The Board has ordered the city "to issue the appropriate certificate of occupancy' to the owners, the city will not do so.

Students' options in housing are being restricted. Those of us who rent to five or more students may need to rent to four next year. This will not make our already safe houses safer, but it will allow us to comply with regulations while our cases wend their way through the courts.

This means that groups of five or more students cannot live where they choose. If I were a student, I would not be pleased. No one from the College administration has ever called me or any one of us to enquire about or to visit our homes. It is always up to us to see them.

Fortunately your College newspaper is covering the story, as is, currently, the Lorain Journal. The Oberlin News-Tribune only prints what tidbits the city offers it, which are frequently incorrect.

I appeal to all students who may now or in the future aspire to live off campus to ascertain that the houses you live in are safe - mine are - and to speak with Mrs. McNish and Residential Life about this situation. It not only threatens to drastically cut our incomes, but it also penalizes Oberlin College students by eliminating some of the most desirable housing available to them.

-Carol Graham, Landlord

Students undisciplined

To the Editors:

I have just finished reading last week's letter signed by Ken Sloane, Allen Wright, Andrew Berton and Michael Lynn. I cannot fully express the feeling of disgust that I had after reading a description of Vincent Calianno's obscene orchestration. Certainly, dropping a piano lid and causing hundreds of dollars in damage to an instrument is not a pleasant sound to hear. I'm sure all people who listen to music would cringe if they saw a performer damage an instrument. Destroying an instrument is not a pretty sound.

On a more positive note, I experienced a wonderful sense of nostalgia while reading the letter. I remembered my time in Catholic grade school. I remembered when our stern instructor would reprimand a mischievous student by taking him to the front of the class and telling the other students what a poor example he was. Vincent Calianno is certainly a poor example of a community member. He was a poor community member when he damaged the instrument in November, and he is (I'm sure) still a poor community member even four months later. I am glad that we can take space in our newspaper to scold him in front of our readers. How else can we teach respect for others?

Don't get me wrong: I fully support the idea that Oberlin should be a place for artistic innovation; however, we all know that there can be no good art until we share a common sense of decency. It's time the administration taught Oberlin students more about respect and decency!

-Corey Dargel, Conservatory junior

Be free, or drug free

To the Editors:

I hope that this new law opens the eyes of many students at Oberlin College to just how far our elected officials in Washington will go to force a drug free society on the American people. The time has come for students to stand up and be counted on this issue because we can be free or drug free. But we can't be both!

-John Hartman, President, Northcoast NORML