THURSDAY,APRIL17,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Knowing rights can help tenants deal with landlords
Whether you're plagued by leaky pipes or a sagging roof, an unreasonable landlord can make a living arrangement become, well, unlivable.
Services such as the Off-Campus Living Resource Center and Legal Services for Students can help smooth a rocky relationship with your landlord — even if it means taking legal action.
"It's the same as dealing with any rude person," Michele Kessler, associate director for Legal Services for Students, said.
The best way to avoid a feud with your landlord, she said, was communication and information.
rights and responsibilities as well as those of the landlord. The Tenant's Handbook, which is distributed by the Off-Campus Living Resource Center, outlines regulations from the 1978 Kansas Landlord-Tenant Act.
Students should know their
Responsibilities of the tenant — Comply with building and housing codes, keep premises clean and safe, keep plumbing fixtures clean, remove garbage and other waste material in a safe and clean manner, keep noise at a comfortable level so as not to disturb neighbors, abide by lease as long as it is not in conflict with the Landlord-Tenant Act, make sure check-in and check-out are performed, and pay rent on time.
Nicole Roche
nroche@kansan.com
Responsibilities of the landlord Comply with building and housing codes; exercise reasonable care in maintenance of common areas, such as yards or outdoor hallways; maintain in good and safe working order all electrical, plumbing, heating, etc. provided by the landlord; provide outdoor trash receptacles; supply running water and reasonable
amounts of hot water; provide written notice of rule changes; give reasonable notice before entering tenants' dwelling; show unit is clean and habitable before tenant arrives and provide check-in and check-out.
Sam Pierron, director for the Off-Campus Living Resource Center, said the landlord was required to fix "anything that is central to the functioning of the apartment" as well as any appliances that came with the apartment.
Kessler said landlords were required to fix a running toilet, but the tenant must pay the water bill unless the problem is not properly fixed.
"If you let it run for six weeks and
then decide to call your landlord, you'll be responsible for it,"she said.
According to the Handbook, a landlord must correct a problem within 14 days of receiving written notice. At the same time, tenants have 14 days to fix a problem if they are in violation of the lease.
Kessler said Legal Services for Students tried to work out the problem with the student's landlord before seeking legal action. Some situations, however, cannot be solved by a mere phone call.
In 2000, landlords William and Mary Lemesany were sued for invasion of privacy after peepholes were discovered in apartments at Parkway Terrace, 2340 Murphy Drive. The six victims were awarded a total of $1.28 million and William was sentenced to 60 days in prison, according to the Laurence Journal-World.
Kessler said in a similar instance, the student should notify the police and Legal Services as soon as possible.
"Obviously," Kessler said, "you have a great case to not stay in that apartment."
Roché is a senior in journalism.
Contact her at nroche@kansan.com.
Each week reporter Roché covers a different consumer issue. She is a Wichita senior in journalism.
Old play updated with modern feel
By Eddie Yang
eyang@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The English Alternative Theater and the Lawrence Arts Center will be giving Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie a few modern twists.
Paul Lim, professor of English and the play's director, said although he made some changes, the spirit of the play remains the same.
"Most productions of The Glass Menagerie are set in 1944, because it was the year the play premiered in Chicago," Lim said. "In our production the setting will be Amsterdam in 1983 with an older Tom Wingfield speaking from a gay bar."
In the EAT-LAC production, two actors will portray Tom Wingfield, the play's main character, instead of just one.
"Because it's a memory play and not real, we feel we can take some liberties," Kirby Fields, stage manager, said. "The lines are exactly what Williams
"We now know Tennessee was a practicing homosexual. He came out of the closet in the early'70s,and there was no reason why we couldn't show that side of him in this autobiographical memory play." Paul Lim Professor of English
wrote. We just divided Tom's lines into separate parts with the younger and older Tom."
John Younger, professor of the classics who portrays the older Tom, said he mainly served as the narrator.
"The opening lines of the play refer to Tom as a narrator and character," Younger said. "Lim took the more descriptive lines that Tom says and gave them to older Tom."
entation was addressed in the play — again not a typical approach.
"We now know Tennessee was a practicing homosexual," Lim said. "He came out of the closet in the early '70s, and there was no reason why we couldn't show that side of him in this autobiographical memory play."
Lim said Williams' sexual ori-
Lim said that his version of the play would feature music.
"If you read the play it had music in it," Lim said. "We will have Karl Ramburg, a jazz musician, play a bartender in the gay bar, and under the bar he will play original compositions with a synthesizer."
Lim will also use slides of Hollywood actors from the 1930s to the present to illustrate why Tom goes to the movies. In the play, Tom's father deserted the family years before, and Tom is indulging in escapist fare when he goes to the movies but and is looking for the absent father every time he gazes at the manufactured male icons.
The Glass Menagerie
■ When: 8 tonight and Friday
and at 2.30 p.m. Saturday
■ Where: Lawrence Arts Center,
940 New Hampshire St.
■ Tickets: $10, $5 for students
and $8 for seniors.
Tickets are available at the Lawrence Arts Center and by calling 843-2787.
Overall, Lim's approach to Williams' classic play impressed his cast and crew.
"Paul had a vision on an interesting take on this production," Fields said. "It's shocked me that no one has attempted this before."
The play will be performed at 8 tonight and tomorrow and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St.. Tickets cost $10, $6 for students and $8 for seniors and are available at the Lawrence Arts Center and by calling 843-2787.
Edited by Brandon Gay
University committee to examine sex class
The Associated Press
TOPEKA—Acting on a formal complaint by a state senator, the University of Kansas plans to investigate a veteran professor's classroom conduct in an undergraduate course on human sexuality.
Sen. Susan Wagle (R-Wichita) said yesterday that Chancellor Robert Hemenway told her a committee would probably be formed to investigate her allegations against Dennis Dailey.
Wagle's complaint is the first against Dailey in the 20 years he has taught the popular class, according to University officials.
Last month, Wagle successfully amended a state budget bill to deny funding to departments at public universities in which a professor buys "obscene" videos or shows them in undergraduate sexuality courses.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has until April 21 to decide whether to strike the amendment. Wagle said Hemenway told her the University could not complete its investigation by that date.
While the University will investigate Dailey, it supports him as it does all of its faculty. University representative Lynn Bretz said yesterday.
On Tuesday, he told the Lawrence Journal-World,"My silence has served me well up to this point — it's even better now."
As for the videos, Wagle said she was told they were made in "clinical" settings rather than movie studios or bedrooms. She wondered whether that fact would exempt them from the state's definition of "obscenity" and suggested that legislators should debate the matter.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND ETHICAL GLOBALIZATION
The Stephenson Lectures in Law & Gov't presents
Mary Robinson
- First female President of Ireland (1990-1997)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002)
- Accomplished Human Rights lawyer
April 24,2003 7:00 pm 120 Budig Hall
Contact Jennifer Colaner, Event Planner at (785) 864-4531 for more info.
Sponsored by the University of Kansas School of Law Made possible by the Stephenson Lectures in Law & Government and the David H. Fisher funds