Students are forced to live in over-priced, unacceptable housing to be able to attend BYU and live in a spiritual atmosphere.
Some apartment complex managers are more worried about students keeping the Honor Code (e.g by kicking members of the opposite sex out of apartments at curfew) than they are about the health and safety of students they house.
Students should be able to expect their landlords to adhere to the same standards which are enforced upon them, and which are so vehemently proclaimed in housing newsletters, flyers and advertisements.
In some apartments, flooding is a worry, plumbing problems are a daily issue, smoke detectors go months without inspection and mildew continues to grow underneath carpets.
Monthly cleaning inspections help with the basic sanitation of the apartment, but students do not have the resources to fix major problems that should be covered by the landlord's maintenance crew.
Students are expected pay rent on time every month.
Students are expected to pay fees for late rent, unacceptable cleaning checks, damaged property and so on.
Students are expected to keep contract and residential living standards.
Some students are more than patient throughout the many problems that occur in apartments, houses and condos.
However, the disregard for the status of students' apartments is ridiculous.
The resources of poor, starving college students are limited when it comes to defending themselves.
If students had more resources, they would not be living in over-priced apartment complexes that were built years before they were born.
In the 1970s, students paid between $35 and $45 a month in rent.
These same complexes now rake in around $200 or more.
Inflation is one argument, but complex owners should be upgrading their apartments as they raise the rent.
The state legislature has helped students and other renters in a small way with the Utah Fit Premises Act.
Title 57 chapter 22 section 4 of the Utah Code reads, 'an owner shall not rent an apartment unless it is safe, sanitary and fit for human occupancy.'
Unless students are up to date in their legal affairs, they probably do not know this act existed.
Perhaps landlords would like to keep it that way.
The Off-Campus Housing Office is not too helpful either.
According to the Off-Campus Housing home page, 'The University approves off-campus living units for single students. Unfortunately, this approval is not a guarantee that owners and managers will always maintain our standards, or that everyone who lives off-campus will comply with what we're teaching. Nor does it mean that approved units always meet our physical criteria.'
Often discouraged students do not fight the big, all-powerful housing companies.
But students should not get discouraged if a call to the off-campus housing does not produce results.
Try and try again. It is the squeaky wheel that gets oiled.
It is also good for students to pull all their resources together -- it is an election year, and city officials and legislators want all the votes they can get.
Students should not listen to the garbage Off-Campus Housing dishes out. ('The bottom line is that you are responsible to carefully choose an acceptable place to live and good roommates.')
There are not enough acceptable places to live that are BYU approved.
BYU Off-Campus Housing is supposed to check every apartment, condo, house, etc., that is BYU approved each year for landlords to keep the approved status.
BYU should crack down on landlords so students can live in safe and sanitary apartments that have a good learning and spiritual environment.
If Off-Campus Housing has a policy of checking the approved housing, they should do it.
If landlords are supposed to maintain housing, they should do it.
Students should be getting what they pay for.
This editorial is the opinion of The Universe Editorial Board. Universe opinions are not necessarily the opinions of BYU, its administrators, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.