GPSS IN THE NEWS
As the representative body for 11,000 graduate and professional students, GPSS is often in the news, both on campus and off. Members of the Press are encouraged to contact the GPSS President for interviews.
UW DAYCARE SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY
Source: The Daily
Author: Melissa Santos
Date: Oct 11, 2006
The UW needs to improve the child care services it provides to the campus community, according to the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) and a preliminary assessment made by the Department of Human Resources.
The child care resources the UW offers are limited and too few people have access to them, said GPSS president Kimberly Friese.
Right now, 255 children are enrolled in UW daycare services and 602 are on a waiting list, said Katie Dwyer, director of benefits and work/life in the human resources department.
GPSS has made it one of its yearlong policy goals to work with the UW administration to address the problem, Friese said.
Meanwhile, members of the UW human resources department are drafting a general review of the University's child care services and looking at ways to improve the system, said Mindy Kornberg, vice president for human resources. “Certainly child care has surfaced as an issue for students, staff and faculty,” Kornberg said. “What we're trying to figure out is, 'What can we do? What makes sense and what's affordable?' We're just beginning to filter out some of the options.”
After human resources completes its preliminary assessment, an advisory committee will be formed to explore different possibilities, which could include adding more on-site child care or partnering with nearby child care facilities off-campus, Kornberg said.
The UW runs four child care centers: one at Harborview Medical Center, one on West Campus, one at Radford Court and one at Laurel Village, which are both UW housing complexes. Each of them is full.
The availability of child care at the UW is a factor in its ability to recruit new faculty, said Executive Vice Provost Ana Mari Cauce.
“For them, coming to the UW is a family decision, and it involves the question of, 'What are we going to do with the kids?” Cauce said. “If you can be on the waiting list long enough, you can usually get something pretty decent. But if someone is coming in new, and they have two 18-month-olds, they don't have any time to be on the list. It's not like they got on the list the minute they got pregnant.”
Recruiting the best graduate students is also difficult without good daycare services, Friese said.
“Graduate and professional students are more or less in the position where they have to choose whether or not to start a family,” Friese said. “We can't get the best and brightest here if the best and brightest have children and we have nowhere to put them.”
Integrating the existing daycare centers is another way GPSS thinks child care on campus should be improved, Friese said. Right now, children of faculty members are given priority at the daycare center at West Campus and students' children are given priority at the Radford Court and Laurel Village centers.
It's important that a wide variety of campus departments contribute to the discussion about improving the UW's child care resources, Friese said.
“We're desperately trying to get a better sense of community here on campus,” she said. “We're trying to address the problem on a comprehensive level rather than putting another Band-Aid on it.”
The child care resources the UW offers are limited and too few people have access to them, said GPSS president Kimberly Friese.
Right now, 255 children are enrolled in UW daycare services and 602 are on a waiting list, said Katie Dwyer, director of benefits and work/life in the human resources department.
GPSS has made it one of its yearlong policy goals to work with the UW administration to address the problem, Friese said.
Meanwhile, members of the UW human resources department are drafting a general review of the University's child care services and looking at ways to improve the system, said Mindy Kornberg, vice president for human resources. “Certainly child care has surfaced as an issue for students, staff and faculty,” Kornberg said. “What we're trying to figure out is, 'What can we do? What makes sense and what's affordable?' We're just beginning to filter out some of the options.”
After human resources completes its preliminary assessment, an advisory committee will be formed to explore different possibilities, which could include adding more on-site child care or partnering with nearby child care facilities off-campus, Kornberg said.
The UW runs four child care centers: one at Harborview Medical Center, one on West Campus, one at Radford Court and one at Laurel Village, which are both UW housing complexes. Each of them is full.
The availability of child care at the UW is a factor in its ability to recruit new faculty, said Executive Vice Provost Ana Mari Cauce.
“For them, coming to the UW is a family decision, and it involves the question of, 'What are we going to do with the kids?” Cauce said. “If you can be on the waiting list long enough, you can usually get something pretty decent. But if someone is coming in new, and they have two 18-month-olds, they don't have any time to be on the list. It's not like they got on the list the minute they got pregnant.”
Recruiting the best graduate students is also difficult without good daycare services, Friese said.
“Graduate and professional students are more or less in the position where they have to choose whether or not to start a family,” Friese said. “We can't get the best and brightest here if the best and brightest have children and we have nowhere to put them.”
Integrating the existing daycare centers is another way GPSS thinks child care on campus should be improved, Friese said. Right now, children of faculty members are given priority at the daycare center at West Campus and students' children are given priority at the Radford Court and Laurel Village centers.
It's important that a wide variety of campus departments contribute to the discussion about improving the UW's child care resources, Friese said.
“We're desperately trying to get a better sense of community here on campus,” she said. “We're trying to address the problem on a comprehensive level rather than putting another Band-Aid on it.”