Lack of affordable housing deters professors from teaching at UCLA

By Rachel Makabi
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected] Each day, as Daniel Brownstein rides the MTA
bus down Fairfax Avenue on his way to school, he reminds himself to
look for a place closer to campus. But it is something the
political science professor may have to think about for a long
time. Brownstein, who taught at UC Berkeley, where it was
“more of a university town,” said housing costs near
the other flagship campus are “not nearly as expensive as the
surrounding areas here.” Like Brownstein, many professors see
long commutes and homes further away ““ but less expensive
““ as trademarks of UCLA life. High housing costs near campus
deter many other professors from teaching at UCLA in the first
place”“ a fact that troubles officials at a time when
recruiting and retaining faculty is difficult, said Vice Chancellor
of Budget and Finance Steven Olsen. Although UCLA professors
generally make more money than professors at other universities,
the large salaries are meant to offset the high cost of living in
Los Angeles, Olsen said. For many professors, specifically those
coming from smaller towns, there is a lot of shock when they see
the costs involved in making the transition to UCLA.
“UCLA’s biggest problem is that we are landlocked in
this really wonderful part of California,” said Leonard Rome,
vice chancellor of research for the Life and Health Sciences and
senior associate dean of research for the UCLA School of Medicine.
How UCLA compares The university uses a traditional list of four
public and four private universities to compare itself to other
colleges. The list includes Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Stanford, University of Michigan, State University
of New York at Buffalo, University of Illinois and the University
of Virginia. According to the Yahoo! Real Estate Web site, Los
Angeles has a cost of living index of 128, compared to a national
average of 100, giving the city the second highest cost of living
on the list. The index evaluates the cost of expenditures in
different cities. UCLA also pays the fourth highest salary for
top-level professors compared to other schools on the university
list, according to numbers given in the report “Quite Good
News ““ For Now,” by the American Association of
University Professors.

University offers loans But with the high costs of housing, few
professors can afford to live near campus. Geography professor Unna
Lassiter has to take three buses to school from her home in
Northridge, nearly 25 miles away. Having professors live so far
from the university detracts from the academic lifestyle and
complete submersion in campus life that administrators try so hard
to ingrain, Rome said. With high housing costs forcing professors
out of Westwood, UCLA has lost the tight-knit society of faculty
and students near campus that are staples of other college towns.
“Whereas most campuses are surrounded by a ghetto of students
and faculty, we are surrounded by a ghetto of opulence,” said
English professor Lynn Batten. As an unwritten but widely accepted
policy by the UC regents, the university does not offer housing
packages for incoming professors, said Executive Vice Chancellor
Rory Hume. It does not even have the resources to, he added. But it
does have the resources to give loans, which come from money the
regents put aside from the UC’s own investment pool, Hume
said. Until now, everyone who has applied for a loan has been able
to receive one, Hume said. But, he added, he does not know whether
the university can continue to guarantee loans for all
applicants.

University wants to buy In addition to giving out loans, the
university is trying to buy more space in Westwood, a difficult
task when private owners already have a hold on most of the real
estate within a 1 mile radius. Most of these apartments target
incoming professors and give them a place to stay until they get
acclimated to their new jobs and Los Angeles. It also immerses them
into academic life by having them live close to campus with other
professors, said Sharon Brown, manager for University Apartments
North. But with only 192 units and nearly 90 people on the waiting
list, professors cannot remain in the apartments on a long-term
basis. “It is heartfelt when I have to tell them sometimes
that we don’t have anything available,” Brown said.
“Not knowing (if they will be placed), when their academic
teaching is going to start, sometimes it gets down to the
wire.”