Working Moms
Class studies possible day care

By Reagan Duplisea
Skiff Staff

Like many other college students, junior social work major Sandra St. Don is often late for class. But unlike other students, it’s not because she partied the night before or slept through her alarm. The mother of two often dashes into class after the chimes have rung because she must drop her children off at day care.

Meanwhile, User Services Manager Kim Weber has to make the daily commute from Denton, leaving her 1-year-old son at day care an hour away. He has asthma, and several times she has had to leave work early to pick him up because of an asthma attack.

St. Don and many other students, faculty and staff have said that having an on-campus day care would greatly ease the hassles — and the expenses — in their lives. St. Don pays $125 a week for her 2 year old to attend a four-hour Mother’s Day Out program twice a week.

St. Don and her family run into problems when TCU and the Fort Worth Independent School District’s holidays don’t match up, she said. Her husband often has to take time off from work to take care of the children.

David Dunai/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Karen Bumblis, a senior speech communications major, feeds 2-month-old Collin Dugas. Students in the Generalist Practice with Communities class are working on a project showing the advantages of establishing a day care at TCU.

About nine years ago, several faculty and staff members pushed for an on-campus day care, but it only got as far as the Faculty Senate agenda. There were also movements in 1979 and 1986.

Social work professor Linda Moore, who helped lead the movement in 1991, said the motion was stalled somewhere in the chain of command. The administration in place at the time is no longer employed at TCU, she said.

Mike Sacken, a professor of education, said one thing that may have deterred the motion was that TCU used to be a very undergraduate-focused university.

Once again, a group is trying to make day-care needs known, but this time the loudest voices are those of the students. As part of their Generalist Practice with Communities class project, St. Don and some of her classmates are championing the advantages of establishing a day care at TCU.

The assignment was to work for a social change at TCU, a local, state or national level, said David Jenkins, an associate professor of social work, who teaches the Generalist Practice course.

Today, little evidence remains of the previous fight, and no one knows why.

Moore said her files from the previous fight have been misplaced, but they probably got lost in the two moves the department’s trailer has had to make.

“I’m just fearful they are never to be found again,” she said. “We’re still searching, though.”

Since much of the information is missing, the students had to start from scratch.

“What got me interested in this project was that no one knew anything about it,” said John Hussman, a senior English major working on the social work project. “We’ve talked to faculty who were involved, and they said there were no specific reasons why the measure didn’t go through, but there was a lot of opposition.”

The students sent out a needs-assessment survey to faculty and staff and have already received over 100 responses of people who would be affected by a day care. Jenkins’ mailbox was full of responses, St. Don said.

Although only about 30 professors said they would use the day care, many people said they would have used one several years ago or said they thought it was a good idea, according to the surveys.

Jenkins, a father of triplets, said having a day care would be an asset to the university.

“TCU ought to do as much as it can to enrich the work and educational experience,” Jenkins said.

St. Don said she is struggling with how to get a needs assessment of students with children. She is worried that fliers and campus-wide e-mails will just be ignored.

The students are currently gathering all the data and numbers so they can present their findings to the Faculty Senate. However, getting on the docket is a difficult process, Hussman said.

The students said the day care wouldn’t just be an asset to those with children, but could serve as a teaching tool and volunteer opportunity.

Weber said she wouldn’t mind if students worked at the day care.

“The day care my son goes to uses high school students and students from the University of North Texas,” she said.

Texas Woman’s University has had a child development center on campus since 1928, director Angela Buchanan said. Student volunteers and assistants from a variety of departments from music to dental hygiene gain experience at the facility.

Elementary education major Jackie Hernandez said she would volunteer at an on-campus day care if it counted toward her required observation hours.

Hernandez, who does not have a car, often had to depend on others for rides to the local schools where she did her observation hours.

“It would be a great learning opportunity for those whose major is early childhood, because you’re dealing so much with the development of children,” she said. “You can learn so much just from watching how they learn and how their motor skills and their ability to communicate develops.

“It would be a great advantage for students to see it on an everyday basis — it wouldn’t require you to go to other places.”

Having an on-campus day care would also provide an opportunity for fraternity and sorority members to volunteer, Hernandez said.

“The idea really lends itself to becoming important to TCU and the community,” she said.

When the idea was being explored before, the university looked into having a company such as KinderCare run the program. At the time, company officials said they would build the facility and run the day care if TCU rented them land.

“It would really make it easier in terms of licensing,” Moore said.

One problem may be liability, Hernandez said.

“If anything happened, it would fall on TCU’s shoulders,” she said. “Children are so prone to accidents.”

St. Don and her classmates are fully aware that the day care will not be implemented any time soon, she said, but right now they just want to make everyone aware of the issue. Anyone with input can e-mail St. Don at (S.E.Wagner@student.tcu.edu).

Sacken said TCU should take on the responsibility to its faculty and students with small children.

“I can’t believe we’re this far behind,” he said. “We already have two other schools on campus. It’s not like we don’t have kids running around already.”

Reagan Duplisea
r.l.duplisea@student.tcu.edu