On Monday, a day before winter semester started, many students moved into Oakland University campus housing.

Micah Fialka-Feldman, 25, was one of them, but his situation was different from the other students.

Whereas others simply had to fill out an application and pay to be able to move into the dorms or student apartments, Fialka-Feldman also had to plead to the university administration and board of trustees and finally sue the university before he was allowed to live on campus.

“I thought it was going to be so easy,” he said after he moved in on Monday. “I didn’t know it was going to take two years.”

Why he wasn’t allowed

The administration tried to block Fialka-Feldman from living on campus because he is not a typical student. In fact, the university doesn’t even consider him a student.

He was not admitted through the normal enrollment program and is not a fully-matriculated student; he said he cannot pass OU’s acceptance criteria due to a mild cognitive disability that makes it hard for him to do certain things. He said he did not submit an enrollment application because he did not think he would be admitted.

Instead, he is a participant in the Oakland University Post-Secondary Transitions program, or OPTIONS.

The three-year program admits a maximum of 10 eligible high-school graduates to audit classes at OU. Participants of the program pay a fee equal to tuition, but do not receive a grade point and can not earn a degree.

Fialka-Feldman was one of the four charter participants in the program in fall 2007 and is one of the first two participants who are scheduled to complete the program and earn a certificate this semester.

That fall, he applied for housing for winter 2008. He was at first admitted to live on campus, but then the administration denied him, saying that he was not eligible because housing is reserved for only degree-seeking students and he was not in a degree-seeking program.

He has been trying to change the rule since then, and was denied by the administration and the board of trustees repeatedly.

In November 2008, Fialka-Feldman sued the OU administration, including President Gary Russi and Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Mary Beth Snyder, OU board of trustees, and the then-housing director Lionel Maten, and the litigation has been ongoing since.

In November 2009, Fialka-Feldman sought a summary judgement and also filed a permanent injunction to be allowed to live in a dorm this semester, and a hearing was held on Dec. 17.

On Dec. 23, 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Duggan dismissed the claim that OU was providing disparate treatment, but ruled that OU must provide campus housing for Fialka-Feldman for this semester.

Fialka-Feldman’s victory is still not complete, because the university administration is planning to appeal the decision and continue to not allow other participants of OPTIONS or similar programs live on campus.

OU spokesperson Ted Montgomery said that OU “will not seek a stay of the permanent injunction that permits Mr. (Fialka-Feldman) to live in the University’s on-campus housing during the upcoming semester.”

Fialka-Feldman said although he got part of what he wanted, it’s not enough.

“I feel happy, excited … but I wanted it for other students too,” he said. “I think they’re afraid of a flow of students coming after me. But there’s only eight students.”

Move-in day

Friends and family members helped Fialka-Feldman move his belongings into a double-sized dorm room in the fourth floor of East Vandenberg Hall on Monday afternoon as various news media documented the process.

He said he’s looking forward to not having to take a two-hour bus ride to and from his Huntington Woods home every day as well as going to OU home basketball games and the Recreation Center more. He said living in the dorms will also increase his social life.

“I think it will help me be independent,” he said.

Snyder said in an interview with The Oakland Post in fall 2008 that the OPTIONS students’ “presence in a group living environment imposes added oversight and responsibility on the staff, most of whom are students themselves.” But this reason was not cited in OU’s legal defense.

Fialka-Feldman said that despite his mental impairment, he doesn’t need any special care or attention in the dorms, nor is any being provided to him by OU’s housing.

He doesn’t have a roommate, and his suitemate is the resident assistant of the floor.

Fialka-Feldman’s lengthy battle took some toll, although he usually appears cheerful.

“I wasn’t sad, but frustrated and mad,” he said.

Throughout the process, he received help from his family, OU friends and some OU faculty, and garnered over a thousand student signatures in his support, and was supported by OU Student Congress members, including two sets of student body presidents and vice presidents. He cited these supports in his appeals to the board of trustees in many board meetings, but the board did not discuss the matter publicly and the administration repeatedly turned him down.

Janice Fialka, his mother, said she was humbled by how many students supported her son, and how this tribulation strengthened his sense of advocacy.

“He knew what his dream was and he followed it,” she said.

“When we see Micah in pain, or struggling, or upset, as a mother, you ache for your child,” she said. “At times we felt frustrated, in particular how much money has been spent to keep Micah out of the dorms.”

How much this case is costing OU in legal fees is not known by The Post at the current time.

More press for OU

Fialka-Feldman’s case is similar to the faculty strike in September in the aspect that it brought OU to the national forefront, and not necessarily in a positive light.

His case has been covered by local news media such as the Oakland Press and Channel 2, as well as national news media such as NPR and CNN.

There has already been one documentary film made about him titled “Through the Same Doors,” and another is being filmed currently.

He has also given speeches in disability conferences all over the United States, and said he spoke at one as recently as this November.

His classes at OU help in these speeches, as they are concentrated on political science and public speaking. After he leaves OU, he wants to get a job as a disability activist.

In these conferences, he talks about his experiences in grade school, and his positive experiences at OU through the OPTIONS program, as well as his struggle to live on campus.

The OPTIONS program may soon end, because the program is not accepting any more participants.

It is unclear whether this is related to Fialka-Feldman’s case.

Robert Wiggins, associate dean of SEHS and founder of OPTIONS, said last semester that the program will continue as planned for the remaining eight students in the program, but resources were beginning to be stretched too thin.

He said the departure of student consultant Lea VanAmberg, who left her part-time position in OPTIONS to take a full-time job elsewhere, played a role in the decision.

“We did not admit any new students this year because we are not sure we can handle that many students,” Wiggins said. “Until we can determine what we will be doing in terms of how we will replace Lea or how well we can handle the students in the program, we simply can not admit any new members.”

There is a program similar to OPTIONS in Edgewood College in Wisconsin, called Cutting Edge, which also allows cognitively-impaired students to audit classes. However, unlike OU, Edgewood allows its Cutting Edge students to live on campus with help from staff and other students.

Chris Davis  from Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services, who has been Fialka-Feldman’s lawyer since fall 2008, said that if OU had chosen to put campus residence as part of the OPTIONS program, it would have been eligible for more federal funds.

Is he a student?

The OU administration said that Fialka-Feldman is not a student, and current rules don’t require OU to provide him or similar students with campus residence. OU disagrees with the judge’s decision because he provided Fialka-Feldman with “preference beyond that required by the law,” Montgomery said.

“Micah is a student, and has a right to live on campus,” Davis said.

Some supporters, like student body president Kristin Dayag, agree with Davis. Other supporters, like OU 2009 graduate Andrew Bashi have said in the past that Fialka-Feldman may not fit the current definition of a student and current rules may not allow him to live on campus, but progress must be made and OU should broaden its definition of a student and change its rules.

Matthew Kamara, a sophomore biology major, is one of Fialka-Feldman’s next-door neighbors.

He said before they were neighbors, he knew about Fialka-Feldman through reading the Oakland Post.

“I didn’t understand why he couldn’t live on campus,” Kamara said.

Montgomery said this case is about the university’s right to determine the nature and content of its academic and other programs and to establish the requirements to participate in those programs.

“The purpose of university housing on most college campuses is to provide degree-seeking students with the opportunity to live alongside other students who share similar academic interests and goals in a setting with programs and services that help them complete their degrees,” he said. “The judge acknowledged in his ruling that Micah has never been admitted to the university nor is he seeking a degree of any kind.”

Dayag said letting Fialka-Feldman live on campus is the right thing for OU to do and didn’t agree with OU’s decision to appeal the ruling.

“It’s wrong because Micah did not do this selfishly,” she said. “He did it for all the students after him — that’s what the fight was for.”

The appeal has not been filed as of Tuesday evening, and Montgomery said it is unlikely that the appeal will be heard before the end of the semester.