Recent discussion about bringing back a “landlord liaison” may soon give off-campus residents a resource in dealing with disputes.

In 2000, the university got rid of the liaison position because of budget cuts. Among other things, the position was used to help settle landlord-tenant and tenant-tenant disputes.

Ellen Fairchild, lecturer in curriculum and instruction, held the position from 1986-1998. When she was there, the name of the office was the office of adult learner and commuter student programs.

“A lot of what I did was tenant-landlord dispute resolution,” she said, “but then, also designed over the years a pretty good rental unit … database.”

Fairchild said she worked very closely with student legal services as well, in order to be able to help students with their options.

“So that I had appropriate kinds of documents to give students, followed appropriate kinds of processes so they would be able to break leases if they needed to or get repairs done,” she said.

For the most part, Fairchild said her time was spent helping students.

“My philosophy was that I needed to help students, period,” she said.

Fairchild said she had to deal a lot with roommate disputes, which could be ugly.

Penny Rice, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center and graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies, was director of off-campus and adult student services after Fairchild left the position 1998. Rice changed the name when she got the position.

Under her leadership, Rice said the office provided a database that listed available units and other resources students needed to know, concerning their rights as tenants, as well as holding housing fairs.

But one of the most used services in the office involved providing “pseudo mediation” with roommates. Rice said roommate conflict was one of the largest issues the office dealt with.

These issues ranged, including food, cleanliness and people sleeping over.

“It can escalate to become pretty violent,” she said. “It can escalate to become a place that parties don’t want to go home to, and you’ve got to have a place you want to go home to.”

In addition to working with students, Rice said the office also coordinated monthly meetings for area property managers.

“The property mangers, who were front line working with tenants, needed to talk to each other,” she said.

In addition, they would sometimes bring in speakers to talk to the managers. For example, Rice said property managers would have international student tenants whose first language is often not English. Rice said the property managers would often feel they weren’t getting through to these students.

“We had someone from international student services come in and do a workshop for them on working with students from other cultures, other countries,” she said.

The department of public safety came in and talked about risk management as well.

After a few years, Rice said she noticed a “pattern” of good and bad landlords and tenants.

This evolved into a resource where tenants would write reviews of their experiences with certain landlords. The landlord would then be given a copy of this review and would have a chance to respond. Both documents would go into a binder, she said.

Fairchild said if the position were to come back, it would be up to GSB to shape what duties the position would entail.

“And they need someone who’s a real tight rope walker, because it’s, really — you’re always walking that fine line of ethics, and you know your own personal opinions and all that kind of stuff,” she said. “It’s not an easy job.”

Fairchild also thinks the city should help fund the position, but not dictate what the position does.

“If their money comes with strings, absolutely not,” she said.

Rice said she would support having a position like this come back, in fact even expanding the office. She said the off-campus population needs to be treated better and she would like the position to be a joint effort between the university and the city.

“There’s so much beyond just the business part of the tenant-landlord issues, the roommate issues,” Rice said. “The social experience, getting involved in the different activities that happen at Iowa State.”