New Faculty, Diversity & Housing

By Carl Pohlhammer

Population growth and retirements will require new faculty. The search for new faculty presents an opportunity for greater diversity and the challenge of coping with the problem of our expensive real estate market

Some replacement teachers might come from those who are now part-time teachers. They already "know the ropes", are dedicated to MPC and most already live here or live within commuting distance. They know how expensive it is to live here and somehow, they are coping with that economic issue. But, to increase the diversity among our faculty, we will have to attract good teachers from outside our area and many will be deterred by the hurdles of our high cost of living area. How will we deal with that problem?

On the former Ft. Ord property, now Marina Center, MPC has 3 or 4 parcels of land. Discussion has already developed about the possibility of using one of those parcels for faculty and staff housing. The board will need to think anew to find creative measures to finance any undertaking to develop such housing. There are many ways the problem might be approached and any serious proposal should be examined. It is also true that many younger faculty families face the enormous burdens of large student loans that hamper their ability to purchase a house. The board should seek to find out what other institutions and municipalities are doing about these same problems, learn from their experience and perhaps adopt some of the ideas that have been proposed elsewhere.

Finally, a national economic problem could work in our favor. Look around your neighborhood. Have you noticed the "For Sale" signs? When have you seen so many signs within any one neighborhood? And note how long those properties have remained on the market. A check with any realtor reveals that while the highly desirable Monterey area has not suffered the severe real estate market decline that other areas have (it's all about "location, location, location"), still the market is sluggish and prices have been lowered.

I have the will, I have a history of working with others, I have the connections born of many decades of community civic and political experience to make something happen. I will work diligently and collaboratively with professional and commercial people, civic leaders, MPC's administration and other board members to help new faculty meet their financial burdens and to make affordable housing available so that we can attract fine teachers who represent a broad spectrum of cultural backgrounds, ethnicities and varying experiences. We must find a way to help fund such endeavors and I pledge to work hard to achieve that reality.