Talking Stick - November/December 2008 - (Page 27)

Best Practices for the Bits and Bites That Assign Your Beds David Vaillancourt presented the findings of University of Massachusetts Amherst’s benchmark assessment on online assignments and contracts at the 2008 ACUHO-I Information Technology Conference in Dallas, Texas. His presentation is available in the ACUHO-I Online Library which is accessible to members at www.acuho-i.org. To find the presentation by title, type the title above in the library’s search box. Sometimes specific clauses in a contract are included as a result of pressure from an outside entity. The University of Georgia includes a statement about meningitis vaccination in response to the state’s 2003 legislation that any student who lives on campus has to sign a statement that he or she has “read and understand(s) [the statement] OR has received the vaccine.” If the student is under 18, the parent also has to sign the electronic contract. In the first year after this requirement was included, the housing department had to scramble at the last minute to collect signed statements from more than 6,000 residents. As Little explains, since then they have discovered that including the statement in the contract greatly facilitates reporting the documentation to state agencies. Often local, state, and provincial laws for landlordtenant relationships can affect the terminology of housing contracts and how the college or university defines its relationship with the student in the contract. Housing agreements for residence halls may or may not be exempt from landlord-tenant laws. Some institutions have specific language in the agreement clarifying that it does not imply a landlordtenant relationship. On the other hand, institutions need to be careful about using the word “lease,” since they may then be bound by laws and procedures (such as eviction) that are at odds with their own conduct codes. Landlord-tenant laws can also affect management of campus housing. Leases commonly include the requirement for a move-out notice, and this frequently differs with a university’s timeframe for students moving out. At the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, the apartment lease is subject to Canadian landlord-tenant laws. The university would like to have a 12-month contract but must instead use a lease for their apartment-style residences; this allows students to give a 30-day move-out notice at any time. According to Amal Awini, housing manager at Alberta, this means that a student can move in at the beginning of the month, give notice, and move out at the end of the month. Although such a short time period is rare, move-ins and move-outs happen throughout the year, which forces the administration to evaluate occupancy on a monthly basis. To avoid the complexity of having several different types of contracts, many institutions are finding ways to create a single process, using the same contract for different kinds of assignments. At Texas State, according to Estes, the same contract is used for residence halls and apartment residences, and it includes an addendum clarifying contractual differences between residence halls and apartments. The addendum also specifies the monthly payment schedule for apartments, which differs from the traditional semester billing schedule. Similarly, the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma uses one application/license form for both apartment and residence hall housing, and the terms and conditions are valid for both. The license also has some additional terms for apartments (information about such things as rental charges and laundry equipment) and residence halls (regarding consolidation policy when a vacancy occurs in a double room). November + December 2008 27 http://www.acuho-i.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - November/December 2008

Talking Stick - November/December 2008 Contents Online Now Vision Just In Your ACUHO-I Transitions Res Life Facilities Business Special Focus Calendar Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places The Evolving Role of the Resident Advisor Conversations First Takes Reporting Out New Members Snapshot

Talking Stick - November/December 2008

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