Last Wednesday, Sept. 24, every student at this university got an e-mail. This campus-wide e-mail was a joint effort of Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco and ISU President Gregory Geoffroy to welcome the students of Iowa State to campus as well as to the City of Ames.

For those of you who may not have read this e-mail in its entirety or simply pushed delete, their e-mail went on to call for a year of growth and opportunity for students, and listed a handy Web site, www.city. ames.ia.us/student_info.htm, as a guide for student issues and resources concerning the City of Ames.

This Web site provides useful information about living in Ames, including information on zoning laws, occupancy, party regulations and even the phone number of the nearest swimming pool.

While most of you may have dismissed this information as redundant, useless or as simply another failed attempt by the City of Ames to get in touch with students, I saw it as one of the many positive steps ISU students and Ames residents have been recently taking to narrow the gap between them.

Skeptical? You should be. It was only last year the City of Ames was slapping students with high occupancy fines, much to their surprise and confusion (the “overoccupancy ordinance”), taking away their right to sit on old ratty couches and drink beer until all hours of the night (the “couch ordinance”), raising local taxes by one percent to fund new middle schools and banning liquor buffets and ladies’ night at local bars. I’d imagine the major reasons students were so upset by these actions were that they were ill-informed about them and had no representation, mainly on Ames City Council, in the matters.

Enter Mike Banasiak. According to Daily reports, on March 26, 2003 he was welcomed to the Ames City Council by mayor Ted Tedesco as an ex officio member — meaning he could express his views, but could not vote. In May, Banasiak passed the responsibility on to Nathan Johnston after he became the Government of the Student Body president.

Since then, the situation has only improved. Johnston, and two other students, Casey Harvey and Gregory Velasquez, will compete for the at-large seat on the City Council, vacated by Judie Hoffman.

On Sept. 15, Matt Denner actually moved into a new residence so he could live in the fourth ward and be eligible to run for the fourth ward seat, an area composed of 50 to 75 percent students. When explaining his reason for moving, he cited lack of student concerns being met as his platform for running.

So in a short period of time, students have gained representation in the City Council — and whether any of these students win or lose in the election, it is still a positive sign students are taking a more proactive position in their role as residents and citizens of Ames.

And how is the City of Ames responding? Rather well, judging by the aforementioned e-mail and Web site. Instead of students being in the dark about important issues, information is offered conveniently to students via e-mail. After all, informed students do produce informed votes.

For example, I would consider myself a relatively informed Ames citizen, but there was some information on the Web site I had no idea about. (These apply mostly to off-campus housing, sorry dorm dwellers). Did you know …

— Your landlord is responsible for supplying storm windows during the winter season, but the tenant is accountable for supplying the actual windows and curtains.

— Last week was Celebrate Good Neighbor Week — did you celebrate, or at least use it as an excuse to party?

— The couch ordinance is enforced on a complaint basis.

— Before hosting a party where multiple keg tappers will be used, one must obtain a permit from the Ames Chief of Police, and attend a “training” session. Failure to obtain this permit could land you 30 days in jail and a $100 fine.

— According to the noise ordinance, after midnight the maximum decibel noise level allowed is 55 decibels and is to be measured from the curb of the street. So next time your party gets busted for noise, ask the kind officer if he or she measured your decibel level — if it’s not 55 or greater, then you’re still in compliance!

Now that the gap between Ames residents and students has begun to be narrowed the situation will hopefully continue to improve, and we can all live together in peace!