Background
On a regular basis X% of our students have childcare responsibilities alongside their school work. And faculty and staff are often in the same position. All such individuals currently invest private resources in solving their particular childcare problems. The institution also pays a price insofar as the arrangements people make take them away from their school work or their work here at Mills.Status Quo
People use off campus facilities and among students there seem to be, from time to time, some coop type efforts. But it has to be reinvented from year to year.Proposal
An inexpensive on-campus day care should be set up for the children of students, faculty and staff. (The children’s school is wonderful, but it’s expensive, open to the general public, and has rules that some find frustrating.) Mills holidays don’t’ always line up with K-12 school holidays and students/faculty/staff have challenges in finding day care on these days.This would jive with our mission, with what first rate employers do, and it could both increase morale and institutional attachment and make it easier for folks to contribute more to the institution in their jobs or in their studies.
Over my years at Mills, I have had multiple instances in which students have brought their children to class for various reasons (K-12 holiday, day care fell through, etc). I also know some faculty who have brought their children to campus for various reasons. Some faculty have even been able to arrange babysitting by upperclassmen while teaching.
ReplyDeleteA free or inexpensive daycare is needed on campus. The fees could even be scaled so that professors pay more than students for childcare. Most likely a large investment will have to be put into this.
As a first step, an emergency daycare program would be really valuable. When things fall through, students, faculty, and staff would have an option other than bringing their kids to work or to class (which is what happens now). This could be staffed by student workers, and have some kind of online sign-up system, and would make Mills work much better for families.
ReplyDelete