ATWATER -- The real home of the University of California at Merced sits behind aging warplanes at Castle Air Museum, tucked away on North Hospital Drive at Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center.

Seven miles to the east, near the shore of Lake Yosemite, crews are moving dirt, pouring concrete and erecting girders for the first three buildings on the actual campus.

It is the 10th in the UC system, and the base of operations for now is Castle, a former Air Force base. First came the chancellor, deans and other administrators, occupying what had been the air base's civil engineering building.

Faculty started arriving in June.

UC Merced already has more than 168 employees, including 13 faculty members, with a payroll exceeding $7 million. The goal is to have 60 professors on staff by the fall of 2005, when the university is scheduled to open with 1,000 undergraduates.

The opening date has been delayed once, and given the state's budget climate, even faculty members are wondering if the start will be moved again.

Meanwhile, state officials -- from legislative analysts to regents -- are wondering what the professors are doing, with no students to teach.

Faculty members say they are staying busy. Many have graduate students who have tagged along from their previous universities to finish degrees. All have research projects.

The professors are interviewing faculty candidates, planning curriculum and developing courses. Some are sharing their projects with schoolchildren in the region.

UC Merced physicist Anne Myers Kelley echoed a common sentiment among faculty members: "I've never had the opportunity to help start up a major research institution, and very few people have. It's a real unique position for an academic.

"It's a very different kind of job than I've ever done before."