IN THE grand scheme of the University calendar, January 16 might not mean a whole lot. It isn't the date of exams, it isn't the date of a precious day off and it certainly isn't the date of Spring Break. What January 16 happens to be, however, is the date Phase II on-Grounds housing applications were due -- nearly a month earlier than in previous years. A perennial problem is behind the deadline advancement: off-Grounds lease signing dates. Efforts to fix the absurdly early lease signing dates slowed this year, but they need to be revived.
For those unfamiliar with the topic, over the past decade, off-Grounds lease signing dates have gotten progressively earlier in the school year. While students used to sign leases during second semester or right before Winter Break, now landlords require they be signed within the first few weeks of school.
Forcing students to sign leases so early poses any number of problems. First years end up committing with newfound friends despite the fact that they hardly know each other; and, by the time they find out they can't co-exist living in the same dorm, much less the same house, it's too late. Worse, students are signing leases for buildings that don't even exist yet and finding themselves out in the cold when construction is delayed.
Greek organizations are also hurt by the current system because their pledge classes aren't chosen until late January, which means pledges who have signed leases can't live in the frat house or with the rest of their class.
Finally, the early off-Grounds dates in turn cause the on-Grounds housing dates to slide up by way of keeping pace. This is an issue that affects everyone.
Frankly, most landlords hate the status quo as well: It squeezes their calendar and leaves them with unhappy tenants. So why is a solution so hard to come by? Because landlords are in tight competition with each other, and no one landlord is going to unilaterally push back his or her lease-signing date. When approached, the ubiquitous phrase landlords throw out is "market factors," but this is only a half-truth. While it is true that any individual landlord would be committing financial suicide by moving the date back, if all landlords did so, there would be no damage to business.
Although it might seem difficult to get every landlord in Charlottesville to sign on for such a move, the institutions are already in place to make it happen. The Blue Ridge Apartment Council (BRAC) is an organization that includes nearly every landlord in the area. BRAC is ostensibly a trade organization and certainly has no official governing power, but there is no reason it could not be used as an avenue through which to broker a collective agreement. Former Student Council President Micah Schwartz was exploring this option during his term, but it has since stalled.
Naturally, the financial reality of the situation dictates that landlords are going to need an incentive to join such an agreement; moreover, there must be a disincentive to keep individuals from breaking ranks. This is where the new Off-Grounds Housing Office comes in. By controlling landlords' access to prospective tenants and offering free publicity to the University community for compliers, the Off-Grounds Housing Office can offer tangible reasons for landlords to collectively push back lease signing dates and not try to undercut their competitors.
A concurrent option would be to have the landlords via BRAC enter into a contractual agreement setting a date before which no leases can be signed. The codification of such a move -- and punishments for breaching the contract -- would cut down on the temptation for any landlord to go rogue. Again, the Off-Grounds Housing Office should make promises in any such contract to offer full exposure for every signatory.
No disincentives are going to prevent landlords from offering early leases, however, if students are still willing to sign them. Since the prospect of competitors gaining undue advantage is the biggest roadblock to this initiative, it will require a conscious decision by the student body not to humor rogue landlords for any agreement to work. Whether this comes in the form of a written, signed petition or just a refusal to answer landlords' early ads, prospective tenants need to make it clear they are serious about wanting later lease signing dates.
Right now, the most important step is for all parties to begin having serious conversations again. Everyone benefits when lease-signing dates are pushed back: students, parents, landlords, frats, sororities and even the Housing division, which would no longer have to make on-Grounds housing phases so early in order to compensate for the off-Grounds calendar. However, the landlords are not going to address this issue unless elements within the University begin prodding them once more. It may take some time, but hopefully the spring semester will come soon when January 16 again means absolutely nothing.
(Elliot Haspel is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He is the Student Council religious affairs committee chair but has no role in decisions regarding the Off-Grounds Housing Office or Council's efforts on lease signing dates. He can be reached at ehaspel@cavalierdaily.com.)
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