[DATE]

DearSenator/Congressman [NAME]:

As[PRESIDENT/CHANCELLOR] of [UNIVERSITY], I am writing to you today to urge youto co-sponsor the 2009 Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) (H.R.1547/S.781).  CHIA will help provide safe, modern andaffordable housing for all college students and end an arbitrary distinction intax law that harms some not-for-profit student housing.  The bill allows more not-for-profitentities to use tax-deductible charitable contributions to build, maintain orimprove their not-for-profit student housing.  While CHIA already enjoys the support of 52 Representativesand 11 Senators, we need your support and effort to help pass the bill in 2009.

Collegiate enrollment is rapidly rising at a time of alreadysevere housing shortages on campuses. Not-for-profit housing fills the gap by providing a critical source ofadditional, affordable housing for college students.  For example, fraternity and sorority houses across thecountry now house more than 250,000 college students.  Here at [school name], we have [number of Greek houses oncampus] fraternity and sorority houses that are home to [number of studentsliving in Greek housing] students.

Unfortunately, the age of fraternity and sorority housing onmy campus calls for significant capital improvements for life-savingfire-safety, technology enhancements, and comprehensive maintenance to keep thefacilities sustainable for future generations of students.  Our school is able to use ourcharitable contributions to build, improve, and renovate residence halls toprovide safe housing for students but an arbitrary distinction in the currenttax code prevents our fraternities, sororities and other not-for-profit studenthousing owners from using their charitable contributions to improve andrenovate the buildings they own. The result is that the state of other not-for-profit student housing isdeclining and access to affordable housing is scarce in the current economicenvironment because these groups lack proper access to the capital fundingneeded to make significant improvements.

Passing the 2009 Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Actmeans future generations of students will find better and safer housing on ourcampus.  It is important thatfederal tax laws and federal education policy encourage investments that willincrease the safety, capacity and capabilities of collegiate housing optionsavailable to all students.  Forthose reasons, I strongly encourage you to become a co-sponsor and work with usto see this bill become law this year.

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