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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1973)
Students easily abused by landlords Any student who has paid too much money for a three room bunker, who’s been denied a $50 damage deposit because of tack holes in the wall, or who’s been evicted for complaining about sub standard plumbing will understand the need for a uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Such an act has been introduced in the Oregon Senate—Senate Bill 159. Students are particularly susceptible to landlord abuse. A majority of students must live in housing bordering the cam pus. There is a great need for housing, a demand that far exceeds the supply. As a result students pay high rent for generally substandard housing. Landlords can do most anything and still find tenants willing to endure the abuse for the protection of a roof. The bulk of S.B. 159 deals with lan dlord rights and responsibilities. Law already provides redress for landlords who have been wronged by tenants. % Eviction laws, for example, are heavily disposed to the landlord’s position. The act incorporates landlord rights with due process concerns for tenants. Under the law, a landlord could still evict a tenant for a variety of reaons, but the reasons would have to be stated, would have to be valid and the landlord would have to provide due notice. Similarly, the bill would not outlaw the so-called damage or cleaning deposits. The deposits are necessary if a landlord is to be protected from destructive and careless tenants. But the law would require landlords to use'the deposits for repair or cleaning purposes. When a tenant moved from a house or apartment the deposit would have to be refunded unless there was damage or cleaning to be done. And if the deposit or a portion of it was spent the landlord would be required to provide notice of the expenditure and a reasonable account of the work done. Significant are the bills provisions on building standards. Under present law a landlord is not required to maintain his buildings, is allowed to defer on necessary repairs, and can demand that repairs be made by tenants. What is more, a tenant who withholds any or all rent because of substandard conditions is subject to eviction and prosecution. SB 159 would change that. Landlords would be required to keep their buildings in line with community building codes. Tenants who reported their landlords for standards violations would be protected. The bill has been passed to the Senate Local Government and Urban Affairs committee where it will be examined. Public hearings are likely. Any student who’s ever had to pay first and last month’s rent and both cleaning and damage deposits on a three room concrete bunker called an apartment would do well to attend. Leiters The Emerald will print one (1) letter from, one (II letter for and one (1) letter againot each candidate running for office daring regularly scheduled ASUO primary and general elections. All letters must he typed, double or triple spaced, dated and signed in ink. Signatures mast have accompaayiag address information. Letters exceeding 25® words hi length will not be rua. All letters intended for publication before the winter term primary election must he submitted no later than 3 p.m. Feb. ». 1*73. Letters intended for publication before the general election mast he submitted no later than 3 p.m. Feb 1C. The Emerald will choose letters for and against candidates on the basis of date submitted. Candidates with Questions regarding the policy are ashed to contact the Emerald. 3*1 Allen Hall, C8C-4712. For outdoor program Since so many people (average of 3,000 per year) use the Outdoor Program, why doesn’t the Emerald print more stories on the available activities that occur each week day and weekend in the Outdoor Program? Why spend a whole page every day on sports which allow only a few participants with many spectators? Why do you only print one or two stories per year on the Outdoor Program when it is one activity which allows so many participants and no spectators? Why not inform your reading public of a free service which provides opportunities to learn hiking, backpacking, bicycling, mountain climbing, ski touring, river running, kayaking and winter moun taineering? Why not inform your public of free slide shows and equipment sessions? Why not write a feature story on Cooperative Wilderness Adventures — a sharing of activities with other university outdoor programs? Outdoor skills will last with a person all his or her life. You can’t play team basketball or football when you get older — and only the lucky few play in college anyway. Sally Sharrard Editor — Publications Office Civil Service and sometimes graduate student Stay away It seems like the best way to stop future rip-offs is to report an attempted rip-off. On January 20, 1973 Lyons Furniture tried to sell me a floor demonstrator model 1972 television set as a brand new 1973 model “fresh out of the box.’’ My sharp eyed wife caught a “Q” instead of an “R” in the six-letter model number on the or do slip which alerted her to the fraud. My advice to you is to first, get a sharp eyed mate like mine, and second, stay the hell away from Lyons Furniture. Joseph VldaU Doctoral Student, Marketing Publish or perish This is to report in sorrow to your readers that while the bombings and confrontations at the University of Oregon have stopped the cold-blooded disregard and disdain by the administration and deans for the undergraduates that caused their anguish and misery all these sad, tragic years have not stopped. Four generations of my family have tried to build the University of Oregon. Our Uncle, Prince Luden Campbell, President from 1902 until his tragic death from \ overwork, 14 August 1925, left us a magnificent, beautiful inheritance. President Campbell built our university around the concept of a community of love, hope, compassion, empathy, humility, spiritual and secular curiosity, passionately dedicated to the sacred mission of teaching, of transmitting the above values along with learning and wisdom to the sons and daughters of the Oregonians, our spiritually sensitive and perceptive Jews, Catholics and Protestants. The values of the Campbell tradition included this: secular academic excellence is a by-product of spiritual excellence. He also left us a succession of ad ministrations through World War II with an inspired faculty, student body, alumni and a faithful, grateful, delighted elec torate of Oregon voters and taxpayers who shared the lovely dream. This heritage has just about been coldbloodedly dissipated and spent with terrifying speed since War II. Hie hard hats and adventurers have taken over. There are two kinds of new rich hard hats cursing the country. Hie new rich finan cial hardhat judges secular and spiritual excellence in a man by the size of his bank account. The new rich intellectual, academic hardhat judges secular and spiritual ex cellence by the weight in troy ounces of a professor’s published bibliography, together with the number of learned societies which he belongs to. The second hardhat syndrome composes the suc cession of administrations at the U of O since War II down to the present. Their new religion, administrators and deans is: Publish or perish. This liturgical incantation, publish or perish, can be heard up and down the campus to the despair of dedicated, un derground teaching faculty and the students in the undergraduate school who hardly ever see a professor. The professors are being terrorized and black mailed out of teaching into the dark world of publish or perish, grants and research which dark world glorifies the ad ministration and deans. In the past three years we have had two terrifying cases of truly great teachers who were refused tenure on the publish or perish syndrome. In the mean time our undergraduates tend to be taught by 25 year-old teaching assistants, miserable and despairing themselves, transmitting their own misery and despair to our tragic undergraduates. The taxpayers are paying for all this pride, vanity and the tragic defeat of our dreams for our children. Let us humbly pray the Legislature of the State of Oregon looks closely at our sorrow. Robert Prescott, Jr. Class of 1949 ’ 'CHARGE!'
