As other universities offer loans and other financial incentives in order to woo top faculty in the highly competitive professor market Pepperdine takes a different approach in offering affordable on-campus housing.
According to an article published in the Sept. 7 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education schools like Boston University Carnegie Mellon New York University and Harvard are among several which have given desired professors loans often without interest.
For example Boston University issued eight loans during the 2007-2008 academic year ranging from $25000 to $500000. Some loans however appear to be for professors’ personal interests. After some research on schools’ tax forms the Chronicle found that Carnegie Mellon lent $362516 to a music professor to buy a violin and Harvard lent two professors $203000 and $61000 to help finance their children’s educations — all without interest.
Lawyer and former senior counsel to the Senate Finance Committee Dean A. Zerbe criticized the practice as “a backdoor way to hide compensation according to the story.
However, according to Provost Daryl Tippens, Pepperdine strives to practice an alternative technique of utilizing the university’s resources such as on-campus housing in order to draw prospective faculty members to the fold.
On-campus housing had been in higher demand, but due to the fall of the southern California real estate market, the pressure has decreased significantly.
People were eager if not desperate to get on campus said Tippens. And now there’s flowing both directions — people who want to move on campus and people who want to move off.”
Faculty members gain the benefit of close proximity to students neighbors and events when they choose to live on campus but Tippens said those who choose to live off-campus gain benefits as well.
“There are other people who want be in a more traditional neighborhood. They want their supermarket down the street their church down the street … It’s really what people prefer for their lifestyle Tippens said.
Professor of psychology Steven Rouse moved on campus seven years ago.
One of the reasons I wanted to come to Pepperdine in the first place was that I wanted to be at a place where the faculty could get to know the students he said. The closeness to the students is one of the things we really liked.”
Advocates for faculty incentives see them as a vital way to draw high-quality faculty and consequently maintain the academic strength of an institution.
“They’re needed they’re sought and we’re trying to see what it takes to get them here said Jerry Derloshon, a spokesman for Pepperdine University, told the Chronicle in its Sept. 7 issue.
Faculty members go through a specific process with the university to apply for on-campus housing, with eligibility based primarily on their financial stability. Pepperdine currently has 63 housing units on Baxter Drive and 55 on Drescher Graduate Campus. While the majority of them are condominiums, there are several attached, stand-alone homes as well.
Housing plays a big part in Pepperdine’s recruitment efforts, Tippens said.
Like many universities that are in high markets — Columbia NYU Berkeley or Stanford … we in southern California have to do certain things to make it possible for faculty to come here and work he said. Often we’ll find a faculty member that really wants to work here but then the question is is that financially possible?”
Reasonably priced on-campus homes help make that possibility a reality.
“Our ability to provide residences to our faculty is a key to our success and a key to creating the kind of community we want Tippens said.
