Good post. Because STU was minimally funded last year (before I was involved), we only have money for one position, which severely limits our ability to do outreach on campus. Last year, in which we had a larger budget, we were able to have a much more expansive operation. This year, counseling has been almost out exclusive focus thus far due to lack of funds, and even this has been much more limited than last year because most of this responsibility has fallen on me. (Training counselors takes a long time and is especially difficult to do when people can only be taken on as volunteers. Volunteering as a counselor is qualitatively different than volunteering for other groups; understanding tenant law and talking to people about it isn’t quite the same as putting up posters.) Nonetheless, I have been able to get a small group together trained with adequate counseling skills to have regular counseling hours this semester. Email us at stuuwmadison@gmail.com if counseling is needed. For what it’s worth, we’ll be around until the end of the fiscal year (June 2010).

Also, I can’t tell you what a loss to campus it is to not have a counseling operation. The need is just so great. Every student has had problems with their landlord at some point, and yet few have any real understanding of their rights, which is why LANDLORDS ARE ABLE TO CONSCIOUSLY EXPLOIT STUDENTS. As you note, I have my feelings about how the eligibility process went down in the fall, and I see no point in rehashing that since nothing can be changed. What’s done is done.

Without an STU next year, it would be nice if ASM could commit some resources to something, since tenant counseling has to be one of the least controversial services that any GSSF currently provides. The Tenant Resource Center is simply too far away and not student-focused enough to be adequate. I’ll probably end up trying to keep STU alive next year through some volunteers, but like I said that’s not going to be sustainable, probably not even in the short-term.