The Stove

My landlord assumes I don't know how to operate a stove. Persuaded that I would set my apartment ablaze, the insightful owner disconnected the stove's gas pipe, blocking my access to this dangerous cooking device. My landlord: Yeshiva University. My residence: an Independent Housing Project's (IHP) apartment.

The YU administration views the IHP apartments as a necessary evil, insisting that they simply compensate for the lack of the dorm space on Main Campus and don't serve as an alternative to the residence halls. The administration argues that as a direct extension of the dorms, the IHP apartments have to closely resemble the dorm rooms in their facilities. For example, the apartments' furniture and ceiling lamps parallel those in Rubin Hall.

However, no matter how hard the administration tries to "dormatize" the apartments, they would always differ from the residence halls in two aspects: bathrooms and kitchens. In regards to the bathrooms, the administration had no choice but to let the IHP students use the facilities in their apartments. Yet when it came to the kitchens and hence the stoves in them, the YU management decided to prohibit the residents use of the stoves, again operating from the principle that the apartments must be identical to dorms. The administration, waving the tricolor of equality, claims that it would permit the apartments' residents to cook only when their fellow students in the dorms can enjoy the same privilege. The Yeshiva completely disregards the fact that, unlike the dorms, the apartments feature either separate kitchens or kitchen areas, which obviously the residents should use for cooking. The IHP students live in the buildings where all other residents cook in their apartments on a daily basis.

In the middle of November, Jeffery Rosengarten, Director of Supporting Services, explaining to the IHP student committee the reasons behind the ban, stating that the stoves pose a threat to "safety of a facility [an IHP apartment]." He also pointed out that the administration favors the Stern students over the IHP residents in allowing the females to use their stoves because "women are more responsible" than men.

Not commenting on the feminist twist of Mr. Rosengarten's argument, I strongly disagree with the administration's position. By denying the IHP students use of their stoves, Yeshiva University fails to treat the residents as responsible adults. The argument that the students, by operating their stoves may set the apartments ablaze, flies in the face of the fundamental principle that society entrusts its responsible individuals to use the mechanisms which may frequently pose a

significant danger. If society followed YU logic, then the Motor Vehicle Department would have to close because the probability of a car accident increases once an individual obtains a driving license; medical schools would have to shut down, since the second a person becomes a doctor and gets a hold of a scalpel the likelihood of damaging somebody's health soars, and the police department should vanish, since the probability of shooting someone by mistake increases once a policeman receives his gun. Society, therefore, either verifies the qualifications of those individuals who want to operate dangerous devices, or simply sets a legal age requirement, like in the case of acquiring alcohol.

The YU administration has to recognize that almost all of the IHP students have reached the legal age when they can rent an apartment and, hence, use the stove. If the landlords followed YU's logic of increasing danger, they would have to prohibit the tenants use of their stoves. It is understood that an average person with normal mental development, especially a student of one of the finest American colleges, knows how to operate the stove. The administration should permit the IHP residents to use their stoves.

A friend of mine called me recently. "I heard you live in the apartments this year. That's great! Now, you can cook for yourself! I have an excellent cholent recipe from my baby." I did not want to disappoint my friend and wrote down the recipe. I hope I will get a chance to try it.

Baby's Cholent:

1. Saute one large onion till brown and put it on the bottom of the pot.

2. Add half a cup of beans, one cup of barley, one kishka, a lot of honey, and one package of cholent meat.

3. Add water until an inch to the top of the pot. After the water boils, let it cook on the low flame till it's ready. Enjoy!