Faculty, but No Students

I am at a loss to understand how we can control runaway spending typified by the proposal from Don Queen, director of the CSU Foundation, to build subsidized faculty housing on the Cal State Northridge campus at taxpayers’ expense.

By what logic can public funds be used for such a questionable undertaking? There is a glut of real estate for sale near CSUN--and, for that matter, in the entire San Fernando Valley--that should be more than adequate for potential CSUN professors.

Why not offer them a home loan guarantee at a fraction of the cost of constructing new buildings?

CSUN decisions regarding student housing (overbuilt by more than 600 units last year), parking facilities and other major capital expenditures would have benefited from a common-sense review by someone who had to earn the money rather than merely receive it through the state budgetary process.

The same edition of The Times that carried this proposal also reported that CSUN would no longer accept new student applications for the fall semester because of “severe budget constraints.”

If they are not accepting new students, why do they need more faculty housing? Wouldn’t it be better to use the proposed $27 million for education and stay out of the housing business? How many new faculty members do they hire while they are no longer accepting new students?

Faculty housing on campus will only drive a wedge further between school and community. We residents of Northridge get the noise, traffic and trash but few benefits from having a university campus. Now the school is going to compete in the real estate market as well.

Housing is relatively less expensive than it has been in years, and there is far more of it available than at any time since CSUN was built. There are probably hundreds of houses for sale and for rent within a few blocks of the campus.

Are we expected to support an institution that will have the best faculty housing in the state but can no longer afford to accept students?

JANE P. SHAFER

Northridge