They usually get along like, well, colleagues. But the Silicon Valley housing crunch seems to be dividing some junior and senior faculty into opposing camps.
At issue is a University proposal to build 36 housing units -- apartments and single-family homes -- on sites on the south side of campus. The modest housing would be sold or rented to junior faculty, most of whom are hopelessly priced out of the area's sizzling real estate market.
University administrators say the construction is a small but necessary step in addressing the lack of affordable housing. As reported in our January/February issue ("Gimme Shelter"), the housing shortage has become an obstacle to recruiting faculty and graduate students in recent years.
But some of the 900 campus homeowners vehemently oppose building on so-called infill sites. They say the lots -- on Dolores Street, Mayfield Avenue and Junipero Serra Boulevard -- have traditionally been used as parklike open space. They also complain that University officials have kept them out of the planning process. As of late March, 373 homeowners had signed a petition asking the University to delay any decision on infill housing until more options can be studied. "There's a deep sense of disenfranchisement and frustration," says James Sweeney, chair of engineering-economic systems and a representative of the homeowners' group Stanford Campus Residential Leaseholders.
The issue dominated the March Faculty Senate meeting, where some senior faculty spoke up in favor of the construction project. President Gerhard Casper pressed the point that something must be done to make housing affordable for younger faculty. To reinforce his argument, he read a letter from an unidentified tenured professor. In it, the professor argued that "vociferous and well-organized senior faculty living on campus are setting up a situation in which their own junior colleagues must press their noses up against the candy shop window, hoping for a handout."
Casper was expected to make a decision on the plan in late April.
