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Silicon Valley University Asks Professors To Offer Students Affordable Housing (fortune.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the drastic-times-call-for-drastic-measures dept.

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."

12 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Not Silicon Valley by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Santa Cruz is in Silicon Valley?

  2. I have an idea... by cirby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."

    1. Re:I have an idea... by El+Cubano · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Alternative: students who cannot afford housing on the local market (at schools which do not provide these dormitories of which you speak), should attend different schools. Two possibilities that spring to mind are schools in more affordable markets, or schools which the student could attend while living with family.

    2. Re:I have an idea... by El+Cubano · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah yes, the slogan of the right wing: "You peasants don't deserve an education at the university you desire".

      Why turn this into a left/right thing?

      Up until a couple of years ago I was driving a 15+ year old vehicle. When it gave up the ghost I had to get a new one. Now, I desired Lamborghini Huracan because I thought it would best meet my transportation needs. I looked at the price, however, and realized it was not possible for me. Now, at this point, I had two possibilities: 1) take out a loan larger than a typical home mortgage to buy the Lamborghini; or, 2) go with something more affordable. I went with 2 and bought a small Honda (without a loan). It turns out that the Honda gets me from place to place just fine and not having a car loan has some considerable benefits.

      Now, when it comes to college, people have to separate what they want from what they need. Sure, everybody wants to go to a top-flight school in a trendy city. But not everybody can afford that. So, people have to decide whether the actual education is more important than the cachet of the name and location of the school that they attended. For the vast majority of people who borrow to attend college, the benefits of emerging with smaller debt (or none at all) is far an excess of the benefit of attending a school with name recognition that is in a trendy city.

      Is this perfect? Nope. But if you don't think that what I suggest is part of the solution to the student loan and cost of education crisis, then you are just sticking your head in the sand.

    3. Re:I have an idea... by El+Cubano · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That assumes that schools are commodities with no difference between them.

      It does not make that assumption. It makes the assumption that the students (and possibly their parents) make an honest assessment of whether attending UCSC and graduating with, say, $150k in debt is a better long term value than attending their local State University and emerging from that experience with like $20k in debt.

      Will attending a local State University affect employability out of school? Possibly. While it affect life long earning potential? For 99%+ of people that is highly unlikely. The correlation in earning potential has to do far more with the field in which a degree is earned than it does the school which one attended.

      I suspect that most people who rack enormous debts in school do not actually consider the alternatives.

  3. They're asking the wrong people by Dasher42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  4. Fuggidaboudit by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Fuggidaboudit by Voyager529 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We live in the age of #metoo.

      It's dreadful, really. Women and men in weaker positions getting all uppity and refusing to just shut up like good little peons.

      Any professor that would house a student is just asking to lose their career.

      You've certainly demonstrated we live in the age of wild fearmongering.

      You're completely missing the point. Ol Olsoc isn't saying that sexual misconduct is acceptable or that people should remain silent about abuse against them when it happens.

      What he is saying is that students sharing living space with professors is the sort of arrangement that is only a matter of time before a problem arises. On the positive side, the #metoo movement likely dissuades professors from participating if they don't have enough self control to keep their sexual encounters limited to consensual ones.

      On the negative side, a false accusation would still be career ending. Even if the argument is that such accusations are infrequent, it's a tough sell to try and argue that the number of false accusations would decrease when students and professors are sharing living space.

      But let's assume that every student and every professor manages to avoid non-consensual sexual encounters with each other, 100% of the time.Given that a university is far more likely to side with a student than a professor in a he-said-she-said situation, it's still risky for other reasons. If jewelry suddenly goes missing, how would one even attempt to investigate the student? How many rules is the professor allowed to set about what the student can and cannot do in the professor's home? Does the professor have the ability to evict a student if they so choose, or are they required to keep them through the semester?

      Really, the answer is that the college needs to expand the number of on-prem dorms and be done with it. There are so many ways this can turn into a massive issue for everybody.

  5. Legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Legal? by physicsphairy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Someone who's house you live in is already in a position of considerable power. If they kick you out, you're homeless. It's better to provide laws protecting tenants than to not let anyone ever live at anyone else's property.

      --
      When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
  6. #metoo! by grasshoppa · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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!
  7. Administrators by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.