Despite the winter break, things are heating up in the case of University Housing versus housefellow Matt Morin. University Housing officials denied Morin’s final appeal, confirming their decision to fire him for lending his room key to a friend.

Morin said he believes the decision was unfair and is considering taking legal action against the university.

“I’m getting in contact with lawyers,” Morin said. “It’s not the way I’d like three years of service to end.”

Others, including Associated Students of Madison member Roman Patzner, agreed with Morin and said they believed University Housing’s decision stemmed not from the key incident but from remarks Morin made regarding the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender Society at an ASM committee meeting .

“It’s a case of politically correct housing that’s gone out of control,” Patzner said. “There are ulterior motives.”

According to transcripts, Morin stated at the meeting, “I understand these services are valuable, but to how many people are they valuable? As a house fellow, I’ve run LGBT programs and have seen very small turnout.”

Morin went on to ask, “How many people does this (group) actually serve?”

Although Morin was fired soon after the meeting, University Housing claimed it was for lending a friend his personal room key and called the incident a safety violation.

“A house fellow cannot hand out his keys,” said Paul Evans, director of University Housing. “It’s a breach of security. It gives you access to all floors and the elevator.”

However, at his appeal, Morin cited several past cases of house fellows loaning out their keys without being fired.

Morin also said during Halloween weekend, housefellows were supposedly told by supervisors it was OK to violate fire codes if common sense dictated it.

Morin believes he was fired due to his comments at the meeting.

“I think a lot of housefellows are going to be worried about speaking their minds now,” he said.

Evans denied Morin’s allegations and defended University Housing’s decision to fire Morin.

“This case was the first of its kind,” said Evans. “It hasn’t happened before, not with staff. If the circumstances were the same with someone else, we would fire. But it’s rare that there would be the same circumstances.”

When asked about the commonplace entry of non-residents into the dorms, Evans said, “It’s a different issue if students do it. We’d tell them they shouldn’t do that. You tell me which housefellows have done it, and we’ll discipline them in the same way (as Morin).”

Morin said he spoke to a “very influential” official at Bascom Hall during the appeals process who told him there was nothing he could do to help him.

“It’s kind of frustrating that none of the higher-ups could do anything about it,” Morin said. “It’s kind of like a good-old-boy network. They don’t want to say anything. But what could they really say?”

“Ultimately, this affects the students — the residents that live in Witte.” Morin said.