New York University has been giving its top professors and executives loans for expensive vacation homes in destination spots like East Hampton and Fire Island, The New York Times reported.
The University has already received backlash for doling out multimillion dollar loans to faculty to buy homes in New York City–a benefit it has defended as necessary to attract top talent to a city with one of the highest costs of living in the world. This practice is not unheard of among other universities, but loans for vacation homes seems to be a first.
“That’s getting to be a little too sexy even for me, and I have a good sense of humor about these things,” Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, a former president of George Washington University who has publicly defended high salaries for professors and university executives, told the Times. “That is entertaining, actually. I don’t think that’s prudent. I don’t mind paying someone a robust salary, but I think you have to be able to pass a red-face test.”
Read the full story here.
