Child care services extended for another year

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

he University has revised its planned child care offerings for the coming fiscal year, according to an April 5 announcement by interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life Javier Cevallos.

     The administration had originally planned to end the full-time day care program, retaining a flex-care program used largely by graduate students at least until the Graduate Employees Organization contract expires in 2004. Closing both programs was projected to save $627,000. Shutting the center's full-time programs was to save $300,000.

     "We had been looking at losing 22 [employees]," said Maryanne Gallagher, director of University Child Care. Under the new plan, a combination of cost savings through staff reductions and revenue generation from tuition increases allow for the retention of three full-time classrooms for a total of five classrooms at the center. The center will lose only 7.5 positions as a result.

     As happy as she is that UCC was able to retain classrooms and jobs, Gallagher said the loss of those positions "is still hard."

     Operating the two full-time classrooms will not reduce the savings that the administration had planned for the coming fiscal year, according to Cevallos.

     An organized group of parents who use or have used the center pressed for months to find an alternative to the planned closing.

     "We are pleased that the many earnest discussions and determined efforts to advance creative alternatives to the imminent closing of the regular UCC program have produced the necessary outcomes for the University, the parents and children served, and the larger community," Williams said.

     "It is clear that child care is an important service to our campus," Cevallos said. "This temporary transitional plan will ensure minimal disruptions for the children in the program. Simultaneously, over the next couple of months we will continue to explore options to make child care available to our community in the future."

     "It's a stay of execution," said Barry Braun, assistant professor of Exercise Science, one of the parents active in the effort to keep the center open. "It buys us time to come up with a more long-term plan to keep the center viable and vibrant and as close to its core mission as possible. We're all very, very appreciative. We recognize and appreciate Vice Chancellor Cevallos and Chancellor Williams being flexible and being willing to listen and be creative in terms of their response.

     "We proactively agreed to the increase in parent fees. As parents sympathizing with the staff [who will be laid off], we realize that this was more of a victory for us than for them. Given the circumstances, it's probably the best we could do right now. We are going to keep working to help the center become more self-sufficient."

     Braun said that he and his wife, associate professor of Exercise Science Jane Kent-Braun, have relied on the center during their two years on campus.

     "We have had such a great experience there," he said. "It's really contributed to our ability to be productive."

     "I'm very pleased that we're able to maintain more than two classrooms this [coming] year," Gallagher said. "The momentum of the advocacy efforts, I expect, will propel us into future conversations about how to maintain high quality services. This makes an opportunity for this conversation to even happen with the new chancellor."