An invitation to teach at UCLA may be one of the most exhilarating moments in a potential faculty member's life. But the euphoria sometimes fades with one look at the local real estate market.

The median price of a 1,200-3,000-square-foot "faculty-type" house in the surrounding Westwood community was $567,500 as of a year ago, compared to $243,390 in California and $139,000 nationwide. Employees at other UC campuses face similar or worse prospects for home ownership. For UC San Francisco faculty, the cost of buying the same type of home was $646,000; for UC Berkeley, $525,000.

But help may be on the way, thanks to a new task force recently formed by the UC regents to address the affordability and availability of housing for faculty, senior staff members and students systemwide.

"To keep at the forefront in teaching and research, we need to continue to recruit the best possible faculty," said Executive Vice Chancellor Wyatt R. Hume. "For many considering relocation from elsewhere, the high cost of housing in Los Angeles is certainly a perceived disincentive, and, in many cases, a real one. How wisely we choose our faculty and how effective we are in persuading them to join us will be the single most important factor determining our future excellence."

Task force member and Associate Vice Chancellor Sam J. Morabito of Business and Financial Services is the head of a task force subcommittee focusing on new financial programs for homeownership for faculty and key staff.

"In order for us to compete effectively with other major campuses," Morabito said, "it's essential that we provide assistance."

His committee's recommendations, to be presented at the November regents' meeting, include increasing the amount that a faculty member can borrow through UC's Supplemental Home Loan Program (SHLP); extending the repayment period from 30 to 40 years; allowing campuses to pay part of a borrower's interest rate for six to 12 years; and increasing the loan pool by $150 million.

Although these programs can be costly, Morabito said, "We see them as an investment in the future of the university."

The regents have also asked that California legislators include UC in discussions of the statewide housing crisis, so that assistance can be given UC campuses as well as Cal State communities. The UC housing task force is also proposing that a state loan program be created to help developers who are constructing or rehabbing and operating new housing units for UC or CSU campuses that are experiencing housing shortages.

At UCLA, plans are also well under way to increase student housing by 4,000 beds over the next decade.

"We are continuing in our effort to transform the UCLA campus from what was predominantly a commuter school in the '60s and '70s to a residential campus," Morabito said. "We want to move to a model where we can guarantee undergrads four years of housing and two years for new grad students coming in. We especially want undergrads in our residential programs because, in partnership with the College of Letters & Science, we deliver an array of academic and programming services in our residence halls," from built-in computer capabilities to tutoring.

Next summer, construction will begin on a 15-acre complex for single graduate students in the southwest campus off of Weyburn Avenue. The initial phase of that construction is scheduled for completion in 2004.