Jonathan Rosenthal knows students have housing concerns.

Rosenthal, the director for community affairs for ASMSU, is using his time to pass out surveys he hopes will open up communication between residents and the city of East Lansing.

The program is designed to define the top three issues students face living off campus.

“The new breed of student at MSU we are seeing wants to get involved,” the business administration junior said.

Rosenthal distributed the surveys in two lecture classes Monday, totaling more than 450 students.

The target number of students to be reached is 2,000.

The survey comes as a portion of Rosenthal’s attempt, with the cooperation of the city, to open up communication with students.

Earlier this month an e-mail address was introduced, but a lack of response has compelled Rosenthal to use another method.

The survey is also asking for students to list their address in the city.

Each student given the survey is asked to describe the quality of life issues, they would like to see the city improve.

Some of the top responses on the survey have been city ordinances, the quality of housing available to students and the cost of rent, Rosenthal said.

On Monday, Rosenthal will distribute the survey to another lecture class of 230 students.

“The end result is going to be to have an elite university and an elite community,” he said.

Deputy City Manager Jean Golden said this is an excellent way to recognize it is up to both students and landlords to solve the problems together, she said.

“The landlords were very clear they see students as customers,” she said. “(And) students are the consumers, they can make it clear that when their living standards are bad, they will not patronize that business anymore.”

Issues with landlords aside, for supply chain management senior Matt Hilton, the survey gave him a chance to voice his opinion on city ordinances he said are unfair.

“I rent and I don’t mind living there, but as far as the city ordinances go, they are too anal,” he said. “We get a ticket for having the front left tire in the yard.