Michael Atherton said:
Dan Miller is a PPERRIA boardmember. I'd like to hear his honest opinion on how inclusive he believes PPERRIA to be, but I don't think I'll get it.
Just to be fair, people should know that Dan Miller has supported amending PPERRIA's Bylaws to admit dorm students as members. Also to be completely fair, people should know that Michael Atherton is also a PPERRIA board member. When the vote was taken last November on admitting students, he ABSTAINED from voting (after speaking in favor of admitting dorm students). Despite being a board member, Atherton abstains from ALL votes. It's not because of a conflict of interest but because of some "principle" that I no longer recall. Consider the absence of all logic in being strongly in favor of something but, when push comes to shove, ABSTAINING from voting. (And, since an absolute 27 of the Board was needed to pass the proposal, Atherton's abstention was effectively a vote of "no.")
And, while Atherton complains of the failure of students to attend the NRP-2 kick-off meeting, he neglected, somehow, to mention one other salient fact. That fact is that a written invitation was sent to every student in every dorm room in all of the "dorms" in the Prospect Park area. That invitation included a flyer specifically written to appeal to the students on why they should attend. Written information was also sent to every address in Prospect Park including every address occupied by student renters. The meeting was held at Luxton Park, which is literally across the street from one "dorm" and only blocks from several others. It is true that the attendance by students was disappointing. But the fact that it was disappointing was not due to the lack of significant efforts to get students to attend.
And, while we are discussing student attendance, when the meeting voted against Atherton's position at the meeting, he immediately walked out. Thus, we were deprived of his participation as a student. (Albeit as a Ph. D. student, which is not quite what people have in mind when conjuring the image of a "student.")
He also said:
Wrong. There were three people "south of Franklin" who attended and they elected a delegate to the steering committee.There was just one person there to represent a whole section of the neighborhood south of Franklin
He also said:
Wrong again. There were three or four people from "north of University" (that is, 4th Street -- the only area north of University with housing) who attended. Again, they elected a delegate from their area to the steering committee.and no one for the area North of University
Finally, he also says:
This is his opinion and it is also wrong. I was there when the need for housing sweeps were discussed by CM Zerby and others. Everyone's statements were to the effect that something had to be done to generally ensure the safety of students in their housing. To suggest anything else was going on is just mean spirited. The housing sweeps were done by firefighters looking for ANY safety violations. While it is true that it eventually turned out that most of the violations turned out to be over-occupancy, the firefighters (who are parents too) looked for any safety violations. And anyone who thinks that students are somehow entitled to try to save money by violating the fire safety laws, is sadly mistaken. It is also my understanding from those who have dealt with those protesting the finding of over-occupancy, that those who think that there is a right to violate the fire-safety laws for reasons of economy are but a small fringe of student opinion. Unfortunately, some of that fringe are expressing their opinions here.I always knew that the housing sweeps were BS.
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