Pricing the Profs out of Eden

The cost of faculty housing causes a brain drain in California

When the University of California at Los Angeles hired Donald Weber three years ago as an assistant professor of English, it seemed a perfect match. He was a notable scholar: the sunny, high-paying California system was considered an ideal place to work. This fall, though, Weber will be at Mount Holyoke College in snowy Massachusetts. Why the switch? In Weber's case there was no tenure battle or political infighting. It was simply that the young professor, 30, realized he could never afford to buy a home in California. Although Holyoke is a topnotch Eastern women's college, Weber admits: "I feel I've been expelled from Eden and I don't know what I did to deserve such a fate."

Professors have always been considered unworldly types who live on learning, protected by ivy-covered walls. In California the superinflationary housing market has shriveled the ivy and the walls are tumbling down. While the average salary last year for an assistant professor in the California university system was $18,800, 8% above the national average, a seven-room house in West Los Angeles costs $300,000. Things are not much better near other California colleges. In San Francisco the comparable price is $235,000. In Palo Alto, where an assistant professor at Stanford earns nearly $28,000, a university-area house costs about $325,000 (vs. $144,000 around New York City). Stanford President Donald Kennedy admits that professors are rejecting jobs there because of housing costs. Says University of California Faculty Housing Coordinator Afton Crooks: "Our recruitment and retainment have been seriously affected. They come out to Berkeley or to the other campuses, price homes and tell us, 'No way.' "

Weber, who is married and has two children, did not worry about buying a house during his first three years in Los Angeles. Instead, he concentrated on teaching, writing and scholarship. But he was soon forced to take on summer school and evening courses to meet the $525 monthly rent on a two-bedroom apartment. That meant postponing work on books and articles that are crucial to his career. Even with an after-tax paycheck of about $1,300 a month, he could not make a competitive bid for a small house. "Unless something is done, the faculty at U.C.L.A. at the junior level is going to be all singles," says Weber. "What I see is a rotating pool of assistant professors."

The University of California system tried selling tax-exempt bonds to finance first trust deed loans, but Congress effectively canceled this method in 1980, though not before the program had helped some 190 faculty members. U.C.L.A. also started its own program of second mortgages but ran into trouble when it had to choose between tenured professors and promising newcomers. Besides, adds Crooks, even with low-cost loans "a professor cannot even afford these loans unless he has additional family income." At Stanford, the university is constructing 144 condominiums and town houses.

Other urban universities have had somewhat better luck with real estate roulette. Columbia University in New York City has become a big-time landlord, with 1,500 apartments for faculty and staff close to the campus and a popular program offering housing loans at 2% below market rates. New York University has helped faculty by renting them apartments, including some in the old Washington Mews, charming by any city's standards.

Until the University of California, with its many campuses, comes up with cheaper housing, it is likely to suffer a continuing brain drain. Donald Weber left behind a potentially higher salary and a chance to help direct a new and growing American Studies program. But at Mount Holyoke, he and his family have moved into "an old, beautiful house across the street from the campus." It has eight rooms, big shade trees--and rents for $275 a month.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.