TRC encourages student involvement
I am writing to encourage students to get involved and help make change instead of putting up with shoddy, over-priced housing year after year.
I understand that this is not the first year that ASM is running a Tenants' Rights Campaign; in fact, our ability to affect change this year is only possible because of years of hard work from volunteers and interns. Things such as the 'Worst House in Madison' contest, responsive city council members and indeed the campus newspapers have been instrumental in raising awareness of student-renter issues and placing pressure on negligent landlords.
This year is our time for action'but ASM cannot go this alone. Only by working closely with many campus-community organizations can we be successful in improving the student-renter situation.
One of our strongest allies is the Tenant Resource Center. Much like the Bus Pass, the Tenant Resource Center provides a cost-efficient, year-round service to the entire campus community. With ASM's support, the Tenant Resource Center can provide students with everything from answers to common questions about landlords, to mediation services and legal advice, to a comprehensive student-renter guide.
The ultimate goal of ASM's Tenant's Rights Campaign is to put ourselves out of business. We don't want to run 'Worst House' contests year after year. We simply want the UW-Madison campus community to enjoy full access to their education without the worries of exorbitant rental costs, rats, sewage, dangerous wiring and the like. Our tiny office on the fifth floor of Memorial Union is a good place to come by to help out'but it will take much more than just ASM. Every concerned person in the UW Madison campus community must demand the right to decent housing.
For more information, contact the Associated Students of Madison at 265-4276 or the Tenant Resource Center at 257-0006.
Energy conservation can save university money
As discussion of recent and future tuition hikes continues, it is important for students to recognize the role energy waste is playing in the cost of their tuition. Most students that have been on campus for any length of time have noticed lights and computers left on in classrooms and labs all over campus at night, or doors and windows left open in winter due to poor temperature management. This negligence, combined with rising energy costs, led to a $7 million deficit in the UW-Madison budget last school year. In addition to high mercury levels in our lakes, acid rain, carbon-dioxide emissions and particulate pollution linked to asthma'caused by our University Power Plants'students and taxpayers are feeling the burn in their wallets.
The Chancellor has failed to make energy conservation and use of renewable energy sources a priority despite the efforts of WisPIRG's Big Red, Go Green! Campaign to get a commitment to a 7 percent energy use reduction by 2008. Students, community members, faculty, staff, alumni and taxpayers need to join together against this threat to academic quality, affordable education and a clean healthy environment. I urge them to contact the administration, Chancellor John Wiley and UW System President Katherine Lyall. With so many world experts on global warming and energy policy here at the UW, why are we leading the way in waste?
