This time each year, most students are just settling into classes. Catching students at this stressful period of acclimation to the University climate, many housing providers on campus are currently requiring tenants and prospective tenants to commit to leases for next fall. Each October, just as students are getting familiar with their surroundings, many face the bleak prospect of finding quality housing at an affordable rate.

The Ann Arbor housing market in general is tremendously unfair to everyone who seeks to live in the Central Campus area. For many years, landlords have had their way, forcing students to conform to high rents and poor living conditions. Maintaining early signing dates for leases is a tremendously one-sided proposition in favor of landlords, who are only too happy to see their properties filled 10 months in advance. Students on the other hand, in an effort to ensure a quality location, have no choice but to seek housing as early as possible.

In the past, renters could look to the Ann Arbor Tenants Union for help in resolving disputes with their landlords. However, students no longer have this wonderful resource to rely upon. The Michigan Student Assembly and University regents refused to enforce a one-dollar increase in student fees to help fund the nearly bankrupt student organization. Students with facing a dispute with their landlord are now forced to turn to Student Legal Services. While SLS is a valuable resource, its legal services are not as useful for housing disagreements as the AATU, as many disputes between tenant and landlord require the specialized knowledge of the defunct organization. The AATU also increased student awareness about the legal obligations of their landlords, deterring additional violations on the part of property managers. Their absence leaves a void in which students have no equivalent organization to turn to.

There are a variety of options available to students to help create a more equitable situation. Students should take a stand and refuse to commit until winter term, pushing the date back to a more reasonable time of year. It would also allow students more time to decide who they want to live with. The determination to look for housing early first semester has led to many students forced into unpleasant living conditions their sophomore year, stuck with dreadful roommates.

Until the days when students reclaim the prerogative in the Ann Arbor housing market, much of the student body is still at the mercy of local landlords, who have amassed a significant amount of control in the city. Students planning to look for off-campus housing must begin their search much too early, and landlords that have too much power over students force them into disadvantageous leases with excessive rent rates. Without the AATU these landlords' power has only increased. Unless more is done to shift the balance of power, those new to campus can expect these trends to only continue during their tenures at the University.