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[Dean for Undergraduate Education Bob Redwine explores providing faculty with housing subsidies and takes a look at 100 Memorial Drive.]
A longstanding issue at MIT has been the fact that relatively few faculty members live close to campus. The reasons for this phenomenon are well known, including the tightness and expense of housing in or near Boston and the worries of many faculty with children of school age concerning quality of education issues. However, many of us continue to believe that this represents an important opportunity lost, both for our faculty and for our students. It certainly makes it extremely difficult for many faculty to have significant interactions with students outside the classroom or laboratory.
As we as a community are placing new emphasis on the connections between student life and learning and are taking important steps to improve housing and dining for our students, it is time to consider whether we can make real progress towards solving this longstanding issue of faculty housing. I believe we can. It will require some continuing investment of funds, but I believe the payoff will provide, in many ways, a wonderful return on investment.
A special opportunity is represented by the apartment building at 100 Memorial Drive. Because of MIT's financial interest in the property, we have the right to place tenants in units as they become available for rent. The program I am suggesting consists of providing the opportunity and a financial subsidy for faculty who wish to live at 100 Memorial Drive. I should point out that this idea is by no means original with me; it apparently has been discussed by a number of people at different times. However, I believe it is time that we look seriously at the benefits and costs of such a program. I am assuming that the program will be of special interest to junior faculty, but certainly any faculty member who expresses an interest should be considered. Such a program would seem to have several benefits.
First, it would provide the one commodity which studies have shown is most precious to our faculty today – time. Many faculty, especially those unable to afford housing close to MIT, have long commutes to campus. This adds length and stress to their days and clearly reduces their flexibility to be on campus for events which may occur outside their "usual" hours. 100 Memorial Drive is basically on campus, and is only a very short walk from all of the academic buildings.
Second, as we continue in the direction of providing more opportunities for faculty to interact with students in a variety of ways, having significant numbers of faculty living near campus will almost certainly help in making this occur in a natural way. I would not think it appropriate to require a formal connection with students (such as an appointment as a Faculty Fellow in a particular housing unit) as part of the housing subsidy agreement, but I would expect that we would advertise such possibilities, especially to faculty who live near campus.
Third, such subsidized housing should be an important recruiting tool for faculty. Many of us remember the difficulty and expense of breaking into the very tight Boston housing market when we came as junior faculty members. I know that I would have jumped at the chance to spend the first few years in an apartment which was readily available, convenient to campus, and affordable.
Fourth, such a program could begin almost immediately. Because of the large number of units in 100 Memorial Drive, there are vacancies at any given time, so we could start the program as soon as we decide to devote the resources.
There would, of course, be financial resources needed to make this happen. The scale can be quickly estimated. If one assumes a subsidy of $1K per month for 80 faculty members (which I believe would represent a phenomenal success), then the cost is about $1M per year. The issue of the duration limit of the subsidy, if any, would have to be addressed. There also are apparently issues of quality of some of the units in 100 Memorial Drive which would need to be looked at. But overall I believe the necessary resources would be very well spent, given the important benefits.
As this proposal has been discussed informally among a few of our colleagues, the question of our expectations and rewards for junior faculty has naturally emerged. I believe that all of us understand that junior faculty already have extraordinary demands on their time and that we must give them every chance to succeed professionally. One of the real attractions of this proposal is that it would free up time which would otherwise be spent commuting. It is also true, I believe, that we are putting more and more emphasis on classroom teaching and on less formal activities with students as part of our definition of professional success for our faculty. I am certain that most, if not all, junior faculty members arrive at MIT with a desire to do many things professionally, including teaching and interacting with our remarkable students. Currently we do not make it easy or always rewarding for these activities with students to occur. This proposal would go a long way toward allowing our junior faculty to establish professional and personal lives which are balanced and rewarding in a variety of ways.
I hope that you find this proposal as exciting and potentially important as I do. I very much welcome your comments.
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