Currently the Ames City Council is considering a new ordinance that will ban stuffed furniture – like couches and chairs – from unenclosed porches and lawns of rental properties in Ames.

This is a measure the council feels is needed for “occasional instances” when unattended furniture exposed to rain, turns rotten. Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said the legislation has also been prompted by a number of complaints from neighbors of individuals who have furniture on their lawn.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see this proposed ordinance is directed at a specific section of the Ames community – ISU students. Admittedly, there are a few students who have placed a lonely piece of furniture outside and let it fend for itself, to brave the elements between sporadic use.

But if these incidents are so “occasional,” the council needs to understand there are also a number of students who are responsible enough to lug furniture out when they use it and lug it in when they’re finished with their outdoor activities.

There are already a number of restrictions on-campus and off-campus students have to abide by in Ames. Whether it’s in the dorms or in a rental apartment – which by the way, when talking about a strictly vanity justification, the removal of one or two couches is not going to improve the aesthetic quality of some rental properties – students sign a number of leases and contracts stipulating what is and is not considered acceptable.

Let students have their ugly couches and chairs. It’s all we have. Barbeques in the summer just aren’t the same without the tan and orange flowered couch with three different-colored cushions.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Charlie Weaver, Omar Tesdell