Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 131]

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120

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[November 19

of study on this campus. Director Rebecca has recommended that the regulations be altered in such a way that they would apply only to the first year of study, while the Student Housing Advisory Committee has recommended the elimination of any such requirement. Copies of these recommendations were sent to the President and to the individual members of the Board of Trustees in October. As I have previously announced, Vice Chancellor Satterlee was asked by me to hold public hearings on the campus on these recommendations. He has now completed a series of three hearings, at which a number of persons appeared. T h e Vice Chancellor has advised me that the hearings showed a division of opinion. I understand that the University residence hall students, represented by the Council of Presidents, strongly endorsed Director Rebecca's recommendation. I further understand that the same position was taken by the Student Housing Advisory Committee and that the Panhellenic Council also supported the reduction in hours as did one student who stated that he was representing only himself. Since these hearings I have been advised that the Undergraduate Student Association Executive Committee strongly endorses the recommendation of Director Rebecca. Vice Chancellor Satterlee reports that opposition to any change at this time was voiced by the owners and managers of certified housing, the Graduate Student Association (although since then a representative of that organization has stated that at the hearing its spokesman did not fully reflect the organization's official viewpoint), 1 the Interfraternity Council, and several community people. H e also reports that the Tenants Union, a student community-oriented service association, reflected a concern over the adverse effects that any change in regulations might have on the state of community rental property. After a review of the several studies, the hearings, and discussions with a variety of student leaders and campus administrators, Vice Chancellor Satterlee and I have agonized over what recommendation we should make. Seldom have we faced a decision in which we find the facts so elusive and a balancing of conflicting goals more difficult to assess. In the language to which we have all been exposed in recent days, our decision is a close call. On the one hand, we feel that the proposed change would likely have minimal impact on the rates charged in our own residential units or on the occupancy rates in these units, even under the least favorable circumstances that are likely to occur in the next decade. We believe that the desire of students to reduce the requirement from 60 to 30 hours is reasonable. We commend them for the manner in which they have gone about analyzing the issues and presenting their position. We agree with Director Rebecca that the proposed change is likely to have no impact on sororities and minimal adverse impact on fraternities, that it would likely have little adverse impact on housing rates for married students and for the low-income members of our community. And, although I am not unmindful of the fact that the change might make problems for the owners and operators of private certified housing who have made a meaningful contribution to our program, this impact might be minimized if the proposed changes are postponed for another year to give them an opportunity to make the necessary adjustments. Yet, on balance, Vice Chancellor Satterlee and I have finally come to the conclusion that at this time we should not recommend any altera1 The Trustees have since received an official resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the Graduate Student Association.