Student status is no longer a protected factor in the State College Borough Council's proposed fair housing ordinance.

At last night's work session, the council unanimously decided to eliminate the student status clause, which has sparked a controversy between University students and borough residents over the past month.

"I personally don't see students as an endangered species," said council member Felicia Lewis, adding that they do not need protection.

The clause's removal will allow borough landlords to continue to refuse to rent to students.

If the clause was allowed to remain, students would become "the economic machine that drives the borough into the ground," said council member Jean McManis, adding that non-students would leave the borough resulting in decreased tax revenues.

Council member Jerry Wettstone said that the council must support the other members of the community, at the risk of appearing discriminatory.

"In order to maintain diversity, we need to remove this," Wettstone said.

Council member Tom Daubert said that although he did not support the clause, the students did have some good arguments.

"You can't divorce them totally," Daubert said.

Borough Manager Peter Marshall recommended that the clause be removed, calling it a "latecomer" to the ordinance.

The student status clause was added only recently as one of the factors to be protected if the ordinance is approved by the council. In November, the Community Development Block Grant Citizens' Advisory Committee proposed the addition of a student status clause to the ordinance to protect students from housing discrimination.

Council member Ruth Lavin said she did not support the student status clause, but its removal would keep the proposed ordinance from being "all-inclusive."

"There is the possibility that we will be perceived as discriminatory," Lavin said.

One University student, Ed Howard, attended the work session. Howard (junior-computer science) said that he hopes the student status issue will force more students to become aware of borough politics.

"I thought (removing the clause) was a bad idea," said Howard.

Although students make up more than 70 percent of the borough population, they have little political influence because they don't vote, Howard said, adding that he hopes this issue will show students the importance of voting in the borough.

The council will hold a work session to discuss the proposed fair housing ordinance further immediately following their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 pm in the State College Municipal Building, 118 S. Fraser St.