Ewu Must Face Child-Care Crisis

It’s time to find a permanent solution that students can count on.

Last week, some Eastern Washington University students faced a brief crisis.

Student parents who depend on the neighboring YMCA child-care center heard that it would close next summer, leaving them with few viable alternatives.

EWU serves such a high percentage of non-traditional students - parents and other people returning to college in their 20s, 30s and 40s - that it must offer affordable, high-quality child care. To fulfill that responsibility, the university rents a building close to campus from the city of Cheney and contracts with the YMCA to provide day care in that building.

Before establishing those contracts, however, the city of Cheney had designated the day-care space for a community center. Voters passed a bond issue to pay for a community center nearly 20 years ago.

So, renting the building from the city was a temporary solution for the university - a Band-Aid meant to patch up a long-term problem.

In December, Cheney notified EWU that it must close the day-care center and vacate the building by June.

That left student parents in crisis.

Fortunately, the city probably will allow the university to use the space for an additional year. But it should not have taken a crisis for the EWU administration to realize that the university is overdue in figuring out this problem.

Now is the time for a cross section of students, faculty members, administrators and day-care providers to form a team who could oversee implementation of a permanent child-care plan. A good plan must ensure that low-income students have access to child-care funding.

Elected student leaders, who voted last year to end a child-care subsidy that had come from student activity fees, must reconsider. Most universities use student fees to help fund on-campus day care.

EWU’s Housing and Dining Services recently implemented a creative financing plan that offers grants to help lower the overall cost of education at EWU. But this particular program will not benefit student parents who do not live in residence halls. EWU should find a similar way to offer financial assistance to non-traditional students, many of whom have children and need on-campus day care.

Eastern Washington University no longer can use a Band-Aid to cure its child-care problem. It’s time to find a permanent solution that students can count on.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Elana Ashanti Jefferson/For the editorial board