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Silicon Valley University Asks Professors To Offer Students Affordable Housing (fortune.com)
Housing in Silicon Valley is getting so expensive that the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) petitioned 6,000 faculty and staff members to consider offering students "a room in your home." The college's housing director David Keller wrote in a letter that there are "several hundred students" at the university who don't have "housing guarantees" and need support. Fortune reports: Silicon Valley is notorious for its high living costs. And, according to the report, Santa Cruz and its surrounding areas have far more single-family homes than affordable apartments. Worse yet, a senior at UCSC told the CBS affiliate that some "landlords are kind of jacking up the prices because they know about this." The student, Leon Pham, told CBS that he'll pay $1,100 per month for a small room in a shared house.
Still, there are potentially negative implications to schools asking for professors to rent rooms in their homes to students. Professors are still required to fairly judge student work, and a healthy separation between professors and students is usually what colleges want. The housing crunch, however, might have forced the university's hand. And a spokesperson from the school told CBS that the college has policies that govern "the conduct of students and professors."
Still, there are potentially negative implications to schools asking for professors to rent rooms in their homes to students. Professors are still required to fairly judge student work, and a healthy separation between professors and students is usually what colleges want. The housing crunch, however, might have forced the university's hand. And a spokesperson from the school told CBS that the college has policies that govern "the conduct of students and professors."
Santa Cruz is in Silicon Valley?
The university could set up its own living accommodations. That way, students could live right on university property, at a reduced rate, instead of having to hunt for overpriced spaces in the town. They could make them basic, 150-square-foot living quarters - room, bed, with a communal bathroom - without all of the bells and whistles that seem to make university living cost so much.
There's an ancient word for such living spaces: "dormitories."
We want that sweet sweet tuition to pad our deep pockets.
Half the professors are probably already living in their cars themselves.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The faculty and most of the staff are almost as screwed over as the students themselves. They're not the comfortably tenured gentry with huge studies in lavish mansions some people are thinking of. It's the top brass that have locked down that lifestyle for themselves. In turn, rich landlords who've inherited ownership to huge sprawls of real estate the normal person can hardly afford a closet in are the price-gouging profiteers with little interest in the actual health of those living there. I think the ones renting out giant victorians they got with their trust fund just to cover their monthly wine bill - yes I'm thinking of specific actual people I've encountered - are the ones whose resources exceed their current contribution or merit, and might need to foot some extra bills. Hey, they used to call that noblesse oblige.
We live in the age of #metoo. Any professor that would house a student is just asking to lose their career.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Is this legal?
In my country it is illegal for students to live in the home of any of their teachers unless they are related because the teachers are in a de facto position of power over the students.
It creates a slippery slope of potential problems including things like molestation "hey, want to be kicked out of the school? Don't tell anyone what happened."
It's legal for teachers in America to allow students to live with them?
Any professor dumb enough to do this deserves whatever they get, particularly if the student is female.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
and put dormitories in it's place.
But we'll never do THAT
I wonder how many of them are allowing a student to shack up with them, since they're the ones with the big houses? If they're not leading by example, they're being hypocritical.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Or...MOVE. Go to school literally anywhere else. You know why I live where I live? Because I can afford it. What is it with this entitled BS where everyone thinks they're going to be a superstar employee and deserve to work at some giant silicon valley hellhole of a company? Get real, get a life, and get a real job after going to a real college.
Why donâ(TM)t these universities simply build some skyscraper sized student housing on campus?
Oh...I know why.
You start your sentence in the middle, then misuse "it's".
What is it that you are trying to say?
They tried to - the city shot it down.
Some fresh young chickens to sodomize and molest in exchange for room and board. Cool. Fabulous really.
"a senior at UCSC told the CBS affiliate that some 'landlords are kind of jacking up the prices because they know about this.'"
Isn't supply and demand day one in business school?
lose != loose
Are adjunct and paid a pittance?
Since these colleges are the ones teaching socialism all day long, why shouldn't they each house a half dozen students for free??? After all, share the wealth, right?
There's an ancient word for such living spaces: "Animal House"... The movie.
Do what I did and pitch a tent in the redwoods behind campus. Bonus: You can tell your advisor a cougar ate your dissertation.
Fiat Slug!
Previously ridiculous stories about how people are trying to cope with the housing crisis are becoming commonplace, but all of it is a band-aid. The real problem is that the Bay Area has refused, city by city, to build sufficient new housing. Delusional NIMBY homeowners believe that they can block all new development and prevent their city from ever changing. Meanwhile, their children moved out of state, service workers commute hours each way coming in from Stockton, car traffic gets worse because so few can live near transit, and nobody new can move in save a few tech workers.
... how about "share your bed with a student" instead?
This is very odd. Most universities are surrounded by scores of apartment buildings. And if real estate is too expensive close to campus, there are usually lots of apartment buildings further away but with shuttle buses to campus.
When demand is high, supply increases to fill the demand. This is how capitalism works. Why is capitalism not working in Silicon Valley? Why are developers not flooding into the area to build lots of rental units? Perhaps the university should focus on answering that question. I suspect they employ a few economists.
Santa Cruz is part of the University of California system. It doesn't need to move. There are other UC campuses across the state. As well as numerous California State University system campuses as well.
Santa Cruz's draw is that it is in low density coastal forested hilly region. It is not like San Francisco nor Silicon Valley.
of a nation in decline.
Any SJSU takers ?
http://www.sjsuspartans.com/sp...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Nobody is forcing those students to attend that school.
If they can't afford housing in the area, they shouldn't attend the school.
If the housing market is turning students away from the school, the school should build dorms that are affordable for students.
If the cost of building dorms is too high, they should wait until the housing bubble pops and then buy the cheap real estate.
That bubble won't pop until tech companies start their exodus from SV.
Retard lol.
If I may add a little perspective here, When adjusted for inflation that is within a factor two of what I paid for a small one room apartment above a drugstore on the intersection of State and Packard in Ann Arbor while I was an engineering student at the University of Michigan. This problem is NOT new by any means.
{o.o}
that was running a food drive for their own employees. Nothing like asking others to deal with the problems you caused yourself.
Why should the students get special treatment over the swaths of blue-collar workers with the same problem?
Oh that's right, secretaries janitors and food service employees aren't a blip on their radar.
How about asking the corporate officers of these companies to pitch in and host a bunch of people in their mansions?
Oh that's right, most rich people expect the peasants to shoulder the burden.
If you can't afford to live in your college town, too bad - take a course in Econ 101 and read up on supply/demand.
what about the UCSC's income from the crazy tuition fees? We all know that in America education is not about education, but about making profit.
When you guys get sick you have to go to fundme.com to get money for treatment because you're already in so much debt that you can't get another loan for medical care.
And now your students can't even get indebted to get through university, because they've got nowhere to live, so they have to ask the staff to house them...
How's that capitalism and those free markets working out for ya?
stop giving colleges and landlords the demand side of supply and demand. Prices will go down.
They take the students' money, and have no accommodations for living.
Another scam.
That UC is filled to the brim with the most stuck-up Cal rejects I have ever met. That campus is located atop the mountain, overlooking the ocean. A great perch from which they can judge all of us.
Everything about this story is wrong, or at least half-assed. Santa Cruz is not in the silly valley, first and foremost. It is on the other side of the Santa Cruz mountains from there. Second, and more importantly, it ignores the cause of the situation entirely: it is 100% the university's fault. They are behind even their own promises to build housing. The current debate is over whether they should build some in "the meadow", an empty field which lies between the campus and the town. They promised never to build there and a lot of people are angry that they are even suggesting it, but there is nowhere better suited. Not only is it ideally located, but to build anywhere else would require cutting a bunch of redwoods. The ultimate in nimbyism is not wanting UCSC to build student housing in their OWN back yard. Regardless, they promised many years ago to build more student housing, and they have not done so.
Not providing enough student housing but expanding admissions has really put the screws to everyone else. Less than 10% of the people I knew growing up still live there. Most of them have moved quite far away. The majority of the remainder had special help from their parents, like being given an entire house.
I am not opposed to the very existence of the college, like many older native Santa Cruzans, but its mismanagement does irk me.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Americans, as well as al the human race, don't get married, have children, and buy a house to share with strangers. This is atouchie, feelie, socialist idea that will go nowhere.
The students is mid-California need an app for this. Maybe USCBnB?
Why should the professors leave money on the table? They should lease at market rates.
Want lower rent? Build enough housing or reduce the number of people.
You don't get to call San Francisco or Santa Cruz part of Silicon Valley, especially in the context of housing. Either of those locations means driving 40-60 miles to work in proper Silicon Valley, with thousands of acres of undeveloped land in between and lots of small cities that are cheaper to live in than either Santa Cruz or San Jose-Santa Clara-Cupertino.
Only California could have something like this happen to them. If you're desperate for student housing, build more student housing buildings on University property you f*ckwits. You can't tell me you can't have the room. Not a single building on that campus has more than 4 floors.
The simplest solution is to allow professors to host only students of different majors so that it's very unlikely they will ever be in a class together.
There must be an exception for students who live locally. Myself and friends who applied to our local (local as living in the same town as the campus) UC campus and no others had no problems getting in. 3 CS, 2 EE, decades ago.
No problem a decade ago with a different UC campus that was local to home and work, again, all three in the same town. Grad school this time.
Decades ago the most economical housing solution was getting together with three others you knew and trust and the four of you rent a four bedroom house near campus. Not sure how practical this is today.
Santa Cruz is not Silicon Valley. It is a coastal community with hills and forests and mountains between it and Silicon Valley. The UC campus is semi secluded and borders forest and fields that are preserves or otherwise legally not developable. Its not like other UC campuses that were literally built on the edge of town and were quickly surrounded by apartments within walking distance of campus.
The simplest solution is to allow professors to host only students of different majors so that it's very unlikely they will ever be in a class together.
The UC system is not a trade school, it is a university, you will be taking classes outside of your major so that you acquire a broad and more complete education.
Can't see any way that this could abused!
Thanks for the clarification on the campus location. So it is unfortunate land use planning, then. I suspected the heavy hand of government--the usual suspect when supply and demand are out of whack.
It appears the writer or Slashdot editor has zero clue about what a "valley" is and fails to realize that Santa Cruz is a city located on the coast of California, on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains which separate it from the actual geographical valley referred to as Silicon Valley.
That clarified, 12 years ago I happened to look for affordable housing in the communities surrounding Santa Cruz (the city itself has been trashed by drug addicts and illegal aliens.) Pricing for a room in someone's home back in 2006 was $950 a month, apartment started at $1,250. I can't imagine it has gotten any better now.
Also, the reason that area is filled with single family homes is due to white flight as people escaped the valley to live in peace from the melting pot of Silicon Valley. NIMBY Democrats are strong in that area and will fight tooth and nail against apartments, especially low-income apartments, being built anywhere near them.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
That's a lie. People here call it The Bay Area. San Francisco is called The City. Santa Clara County is called Silicon Valley. From Berkeley to Oakland to Fremont is called East Bay.
If you're looking for an example of the ambiguity behind what constitutes Silicon Valley, there is a small controversial exception that Fremont (and sometimes Pleasanton and Livermore) is included in Silicon Valley even though it is in Alameda County and there are cities between it that aren't normally considered part of Silicon Valley proper. Also Fremont isn't a Valley.
Pleasaton-Livermore-Dublin form the Tri-Valley area, but they aren't known for silicon wafer fabrication. There is a significant research into particle physics and aerospace, but that's not necessarily the same as the start-up tech boom we're used to associating with Silicon Valley.
Now there is no denying that San Francisco, Livermore, Berkeley and other places around the Bay are serious tech regions. But they lack the history of silicon wafer fabrication and most of them aren't any sort of valley. Maybe you think San Francisco and Oakland feels like Silicon Valley, if so then come up with a new moniker that makes some damn sense.
You don't get to make up new meanings for existing words. And you don't get to support your bullshit definition with false claims.
Also, Santa Cruz is in no way or shape a tech hub. Their housing market also operates on different pressures. The Santa Cruz-Capitola-Felton-Scotts Valley housing market has not seen the growth rate that has occurred on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountain range. While some Santa Clara County tech workers may wish to live in the cheaper Santa Cruz County, the commute time is a big factor. As well as the significantly higher crime rate in Santa Cruz, including [hard] drug abuse problems in their public schools.