By Signe K. Skinion

A possible oversight in admission mailing may further complicate a lawsuit facing SIUC filed by a local landlord, University officials say.

Recently, Stan Lieber, landlord of Stevenson Arms, 600 W. Mill St. and an SIUC geography professor, said his daughter received incorrect information on an SIUC freshman housing policy that Lieber is fighting in state and federal court. He said that a missing notice correcting the inaccurate housing information violates a state preliminary injunction.

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Sharon Schumacher, field representative at New Student Admission Services, said all prospective students are supposed to receive a separate notice explaining the Housing-policy change. She said she could not speculate on why Lieber’s daughter did not receive the notice, but she said it was a mistake for her not to have received the notice.

The official notice states, Materials contained herewith or materials you may have received in the past may contain information with respect to freshmen housing which is no longer accurate. . . All single freshmen under the age of 21 are required to live in either an on-campus residence hall or an (University) approved, privately-owned residence hall known as an accepted living center, or live at home with a parent or legal guardian.

In December, the 20th Circuit Court of St. Claire County ordered a preliminary injunction against SIUC for attempting to change the freshmen housing policy from the current policy to only allowing single, under-21 freshmen, not living with a parent, to live in University-owned facilities, and not off-campus, University-approved facilities.

Lieber said the current notice going out to prospective freshmen is the correct notice agreed on by his attorney, Thomas Peters, and the SIUC attorneys. However, he said his daughter did not receive the necessary information that the preliminary injunction requires.

They (SIUC) didn’t just fail to send the notice, Lieber said. They didn’t send the Stevenson Arms brochure which the court order implicitly states they should be sending.

William Thoman, assistant director of Midstate Special Education in Taylorville, said his son is considering attending SIUC in fall and has been receiving a huge amount of information on all forms of freshmen housing.

When my son received his notice of acceptance to SIUC, he shortly thereafter received a packet from the housing office, Thoman said. In the packet was a wealth of advertisement for the two approved, off-campus alternatives to University Housing. As a matter of fact, I was surprised at the depth of apparent advertising the University conducted for these two private ventures.

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Thoman said when he read a recent Daily Egyptian article on the lawsuit between Lieber and SIUC he became upset.

I felt it was unfair the University was not able to present its case because of the litigation, Thoman said. But this guy (Lieber) could say whatever he wants.

Beth Scally, Housing coordinator of Marketing and Public Information who is also in charge of sending prospective students housing information packets, said Housing did not send Lieber’s daughter the enrollment packet because she lives in the Carbondale area.

As a practice, Housing does not send potential students who live in the 62901 zip code information unless they request it, Scally said. The reason we don’t is because we figure, unless they say differently, that they will be living with their parents.

The Housing packet Scally sends to prospective students includes an envelope for Stevenson Arms with a brochure of the facility and a letter to the parents and students on what the facility has to offer.

The packet also includes a residence hall guidebook for fall 1996, a residence hall dining pamphlet, a housing contract information sheet, the same notice on freshman housing policy as Admissions sends, a brochure on University Hall, a list of all off-campus University-approved centers and two sheets of basic residence hall information.