East Lansing City Council candidates have said relations between students, university officials, East Lansing residents and the city are at the top of their to-do lists as council candidates.

But the candidates, two of whom will win seats on the city council in the Nov. 6 election, have different perspectives on what the problems are and how to go about fixing them.

“Before 1999, there was not enough emphasis on maintaining good relations,” Kevin Beard said. “As a result of the couch burning and riots, there has been a recognition on everybody’s part that we can’t tolerate that negative behavior.

“Our fates are so intertwined. We all need to work hard to create a good image for the city and university.”

Beard, current chairman of the Planning Commission, is running against Liz Harrow, a fellow planning commissioner; Vic Loomis, chairman of the Downtown Development Authority; and Bill Sharp, a two-term incumbent councilmember.

Harrow said although she agrees relations have improved and are continuing to do so, she has different ideas on what caused the breakdown.

“In the last 30 years, permanent residents have seen an enormous explosion of students and students with cars that are able to live anywhere,” she said. “It has been a tough transition for the city that they weren’t really ready for. Two different lifestyles are bumped up next to each other.  “What we have to do is have a fair, conscientious way of enforcing housing rules. We have to find a way to encourage students to cooperate with their permanent resident neighbors in terms of noise.”

The candidates agree the emergence of the Community Relations Coalition, a group working to build better relations between students and their permanent resident neighbors, has helped to assuage some of the noise and trash issues.

But Matt Mitroka, a first-year geography graduate student and member of the University Student Commission, said the coalition isn’t enough.

Mitroka said the March 27-28, 1999 riots were not random acts of violence in response to MSU’s Final Four loss to Duke but rather an act of defiance resulting from a crackdown on student rights and freedoms.

“They’ve definitely gotten better, but there is still a lot of anti-student sentiment and a lot of strides that need to be made,” he said. “A lot of times (the problems) are misunderstandings that need to be worked out instead of allowing people on both sides to become bitter and categorize all students as problematic.”

Loomis, a lifelong East Lansing resident, agrees students often take the brunt of the blame for less-than-perfect relations.

Having been a member of both student and permanent resident populations, he says he understands the situation.

“A lot of students do want the opportunity to get an education, to work while they’re here and to have free time to socialize with their friends,” he said. “Far and away, the largest number of MSU students are here for one reason: To obtain an education. Sometimes the perception is that all the challenges we face in our community rest at the feet of MSU students. That’s unfair and not completely true.”

Sharp said the only way these stereotypes can be refuted is by building stronger relations among all the groups.

“City council has to listen, interact with all members of the community and neighborhoods - that includes the campus,” he said. “We need to continue having a dialogue, meeting periodically and continuing all the things we’re doing now while exploring further avenues of communication. We have to do what we perceive is best for the community.”

MSU President M. Peter McPherson said there has been a clear improvement in relations in the last few years and that improvement needs to be monitored.

“First and foremost, relations should never become static,” he said. “Both sides have to keep working at them.”

East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said he has seen some progress on the city side of politics recently.

“I’d say, in the seven years I’ve been here, relations between us and university administration have never been better and (relations) with the students have never been better,” he said.

Sara Luneburg can be reached at lunebur1@msu.edu.