The City of Evanston will not enforce the controversial “brothel law” that has outraged students for the last couples days, according to an e-mail from Dean of Students Burgwell Howard sent Wednesday night.

City officials announced the move following a meeting with Northwestern officials, including President Morton Schapiro.

“All I need to know is that nothing is going to happen on July 1 that’s any different than what has happened for the last 10 years, and if anything does happen differently, trust me, Northwestern University is not going to stand for it,” Schapiro said in an interview with The Daily Northwestern Wednesday afternoon.

Howard’s e-mail echoed these sentiments, maintaining that the school’s priority is for students to have housing “on and near campus,” he wrote. This symbolizes a dramatic shift from Northwestern’s original position on the matter, which had neutral undertones and urged students to entertain the idea of moving farther off campus to avoid eviction under the “brothel law.”

For the full text of Howard’s e-mail, see below:

Dear Students:

The City of Evanston today announced that, it does not plan to enforce more strictly a city ordinance prohibiting more than three unrelated persons living in the same apartment or house. The city has no plans to evict students from rental properties. The announcement came after Northwestern University administrators met with city officials about this planned action.

We appreciate the responsiveness of Evanston officials to the concerns raised by Northwestern students and administrators. At the same time, the University will oppose any efforts that target our students selectively using this ordinance. Doing so would be a disservice to our students, the University and the entire Evanston community.

We understand that the City was responding to complaints from other Evanston residents living near campus about issues related to noise, trash and unruly behavior and in an effort to curtail such activities, would attempt to reduce the density of population in the neighborhood. We recognize the concerns of those neighbors, and the University has taken numerous steps to address those issues and will continue to do so.

Our overall priority is for students to have safe, affordable housing on and near campus. The medium-term solution is more modern student housing on campus or in the area immediately adjacent to campus. The university’s housing plan and campus development plan both call for that. We hope to offer upperclass undergraduates apartment-style housing in a convenient location. We see improved housing as critical to helping build community.  I realize that, however, as a current student, these long-term solutions won’t benefit you, however, the concept of ‘community’ remains extremely important to us all. That’s why we’ve built gathering places on the edge of campus such as The Great Room and Fran’s Cafe in Willard Hall in order to provide places for off-campus students to come back to campus, thereby enhancing our community.

There continue to be discussions between city officials, ASG, and individual students about these issues. We are working to gather responses to the many questions raised at last night’s Town Hall gathering, and creating opportunities for continued education and discussion. We will continue to keep you informed in regard to this issue.

Burgwell Howard

Dean of Students

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