As the Campus Coordinator for the Tenant Resource Center, I would like to set the record straight about our efforts to serve UW students. It is true that we are now farther away from campus, but we are easily reachable on four bus lines, and 75 percent of our housing counseling is conducted over the phone or through e-mail. In 2001, our first year on Williamson Street, we actually served more students than in 2000, our last year on State Street. In addition to the housing counseling and written materials we provide to all Wisconsin residents, we offer students a free 100-page Student Renter’s Guide, housing counseling in Memorial Union each week, presentations in dorms, public service announcements on WSUM, and on-campus information sessions during Tenant Education Week (April 11-16 this year).

It is true we receive around $60,000 each year from ASM. This is a reasonable amount given that this funding makes up around 20 percent of our budget, and is roughly proportional to the percentage of our clients who are students.

I would like to clarify that the landlord evaluations and database are not ASM ideas. It is something that the Tenant Resource Center has been doing for a long time, and in order to make the evaluations more accessible to students, we worked with the ASM Tenants’ Rights Campaign to get the evaluations online. The Tenant Resource Center will be taking over the site shortly so that it can be maintained year-round.

The Tenant Resource Center works hard to provide help to students, and we succeed in our mission.

Erica Christoph, Campus Coordinator, Tenant Resource Center

ASM’s Tenants Rights Campaign focuses on trying to improve the student housing conditions in downtown Madison, and we need your help. We have recently posted an online survey at www.asm.wisc.edu asking simple questions about the condition of students’ past residences. In order for us to improve tenant conditions, it is essential that we have a lot of student involvement to give us sufficient data and information. Filling out the survey is quick and easy, and just filling it out automatically gives you the chance to win great prizes from local businesses.

The campaign also recently kicked off the Worst House in Madison Contest in an attempt to draw attention to the issue of tenants’ rights and to solve the enormous problem of unacceptable housing conditions. If you think your house or apartment might be the worst of them all, enter today at [email protected]. Again, plenty of great prizes are available from Blockbuster, Electric Earth Café, and Laundry 101, to name a few. Without your input, we cannot truly make a difference in the quality of housing here in downtown Madison, something that affects all students who live near campus. Through the help of your entries and submissions, ASM and the Tenants’ Rights Campaign are working today to make the housing situation better for tomorrow.

Kaelyn Rueckert, ASM Tenants’ Rights Campaign