PSU students, staff hold meeting over childcare options

A brainstorming session was held on Nov. 7 at Portland State’s Helen Gordon Child Development Center to gather opinions about a new child care center, as well as future options available for student-parents on campus.

The session, which was designed to assess the need for how much child care should be available on campus, was attended by concerned parents, some of whom have been waiting for an opening for care on the Helen Gordon Center’s two-year-long waiting list.

Mark Gregory, associate vice president for strategic planning, partnerships and technology, said in the 10 years he has been at PSU he has seen the enrollment rise from 15,000 to 27,000, and with that comes a greater demand for child care.

Gregory said he hoped to glean some solid information from the meeting, so that he could use it in future planning documents, including a survey asking what parents want to see out of PSU child care services in the future, he said.

“The best way to nurture healthy, happy children is to keep parents healthy and happy, too,” Gregory said.

It is crucial to obtain a more accurate account of the real demand for child care as well as how Portland State will fund the site–something he hopes information from the survey will provide, he said.

Cost is another important issue, Gregory said, especially since the age of the average PSU student is 27 years old, and hard-to-find, low-cost child care is a serious issue for many parents.

For a full-time student with a child under 2 and a half years old, the rate at The Children’s Center, located in the Smith Memorial Student Union, is currently $3.75 an hour. At the Helen Gordon Center, costs for child care can range from $387-1000 a month, depending on the age of the child, the parent’s status as a student or faculty member, and how many days a week care is needed.

“People are passionate,” said Lola Lawson, coordinator of parenting services at the Helen Gordon Center, which provides child care to 180 children on campus. “Portland State University needs to be compassionate for children and parents.”

At the meeting, parent-students and faculty sounded off about concerns they have over the lack of child care options currently available on campus.

One staff member, who was used to the child care facilities at University of Oregon, which had three facilities and could provide child care whenever she needed it, said she is currently on a two-year waiting list to get into Helen Gordon and has to come in monthly to check on her status.

At the Children’s Center, the wait to get in is at least a year long and doesn’t always have the right hours parents need, the faculty member said.

Questions over the possible location of a new child care center were also raised at the meeting.

Many parents said they hoped that the needs of both themselves and their children are considered during the development of all future buildings on site, and that the next child care facility will be located less close to a freeway, unlike the Helen Gordon Center, which is located at 1609 S.W. 12th Ave.

Others were concerned about extending health services to families and moving the children’s section of the library off of the “quiet” floor. In the future, Gregory said he also hopes to see the development of a child-friendly computer room, where student-parents can go to work on assignments comfortably and be with their young kids at the same time.

Although no child is turned away from care at either of the facilities on campus, there are currently no specific programs available specifically for special needs children, and no developmental screening area that would be necessary to catch delays, which is something that should be addressed in the future, Gregory said. An early diagnosis is important to the many children who fall in different areas of this spectrum, he said.

Another idea discussed at the meeting was an online PSU parent forum that would be linked from the main Web site, where parents could communicate with one another online.

Jackie Balzer, vice provost of Student Affairs, said that they are very much in support of the work that is being done to help these families. The survey is slated to go out the third week of winter term, she said.