While Sacks said he did not "remember actuallydoing it," he speculated he had probably supportedGinsburg when he asked the Universityadministration for permission to join the mortgageprogram.
The Purchase Option Plan probably "came inbecause of a University decision that...theyshould shift from renting the housing tofaculty...to making these sales," Sacks said.
According to Tandler, Harvard had about 30houses available for faculty members to buy whenit started the program.
Because there were so few vacancies, Sackssaid, he did not recall what "system of selection"had determined which professors could takeadvantage of the program. He said most of thefaculty tenants who bought their houses, however,"would probably have been more likely to be seniorbecause they had got the tenancy years back andhadn't budged."
After all of the Harvard houses were taken, hesaid, the Cambridge Option Plan "kicked in." Atthat point, "The University as a whole was set upfor so many [mortgages]. We were told, `this isyour share.'"
Sacks said the Cambridge Option Plan's chiefpurpose was "to make sure that we were attractiveto people who would otherwise find it impossibleto become part of the Cambridge community and theHarvard community."
Less important, he said, was helping professorswho could only afford homes in outlying towns, butwho wanted to live closer to their students."Unless you could locate people in Cambridge, itwas difficult to keep them on our faculty," hesaid.
Currently, Harvard officials say, there are nosuch formal programs to help newly-tenuredprofessors find homes in Cambridge. Instead, HREis building townhouses for junior faculty membersat 245 Concord Ave. and is also giving facultymembers the first chance to buy two- tothree-family houses before they go on the openmarket.
Neither of these programs subsidizes housingfor faculty members, although Harvard may make thetown houses in the Concord Ave. project moreaffordable by selling only the houses themselvesto faculty, while retaining the land underneath."The cost will still be significant," Tandlersaid.
In addition, Law School Administrative DeanSimone Reagor said, "Sometimes the [Law School]dean might help out with housing on an individualbasis." She said such aid "could take the form ofa direct subsidy" on a mortgage, but that the LawSchool had not used either of the formal mortgageprograms for about six years.