John Jackson, Ph.D., President, William Jessup University
William Jessup University is a little ecosystem of its own from our perspective as a major employer in the area (we have about 150 full time and about 500 part time employees). The good news about that is that we have students and staff and faculty and administrators across the campus in a mixture of part and full time jobs from literally every sector of life including race, ethnicity and socio-economic background. The better news is that we have jobs that pay across the spectrum as well, including entry level and professional and career academic, and executive. The painful news? The painful news is that many of our committed employees are simply not able to afford a home in Placer County. We realize that if our employees are not able to afford homes, it makes it very difficult for them to make a long term commitment to the University.
Placer County is a wonderful community. I am so thankful to live here. I’m thankful for the wonderful amenities, the supportive business and government environments, and the amazing natural landscape of the created world around us. I’m also thankful that here in Placer we have a variety of economic levels in our community. My own children live here and we are hopeful that they will choose to remain here. However, both at an employer level and at a personal level, the availability of affordable housing is a challenge in our community. I know that for our community to thrive, access to affordable housing must be part of our long term sustainable economic strategy.
My hope is that Placer County will not only remain a wonderful and beautiful community in which to live, work and play, but that we will provide avenues for people from all walks of life and all socio-economic levels to participate in the robust and vital society we all long to help create.
