John Ulreich

By John Ulreich

The Arizona Daily Wildcat's recent investigation of childcare resources by Lydia Hallay on Feb. 22 has drawn attention to a chronic problem: "UA childcare not up to par with other Pac-10 schools." Subsequent responses to Hallay's article ("Issue of the Week" on Feb. 27 and Letters on March 1) plainly indicate the need for ongoing dialogue about the issues.

As one voice in that conversation, I offer the following propositions: (1) The University of Arizona professes to be a student-centered research university. (2) If the reality of that commitment can be measured by the accessibility of childcare, then (3) Hallay's report demonstrates that we are not fulfilling our mission.

The crucial point is clearly item 2: the link between childcare and the University's mission. Kendrick Wilson believes that "the main reason the UA doesn't provide childcare for student parents . . . [is that] students are simply not the top priority."

The logic of this bleak conclusion is hard to resist: a university that really cared about its students would do everything it could to support their education. At the same time, I know the colleagues I work with - staff and administrators as well as faculty - are student-centered. For all of us, the welfare of students is not merely the most important thing, it is the only thing that finally matters. Unfortunately, I cannot make the same claim for the University as a whole. In my view, if we want to live up to our expectations for ourselves, we must do a great deal more than we have done to address the needs of working parents.

I'll try to substantiate that assertion by answering the question raised in my title: Who needs childcare? One obvious answer to that question is something like "working parents with small children." A less obvious but more compelling answer is "We all need childcare," because one way or another we all wind up paying for it.

Wildcat columnist Shane Dale has got it right: "uneducated parents on welfare will end up costing taxpayers more in the long run than a daycare program that makes it easier for women - and men, as the case may be - to go to college, get a job and become financially independent." We get what we pay for, and we pay for what we get, sooner or later. The longer we wait, the more we wind up paying.

That economic argument seems to me persuasive, but I am also inspired by a conviction that affordable childcare for everyone is vital to my well-being on the deepest level. I have what we call a "gut feeling."

On a level that resists rational proof, I share the poet John Donne's conviction that no one is an island, entire of itself; each of us is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Anyone's oppression diminishes me, because I am involved in humanity. I experience that involvement most intensely when I am engaged in work that I love with those whom I love. For better or worse, that happens here, in this imperfect community that we call our university. And as I see it, the benefits I derive from the community create in me an obligation to all of its members: my welfare demands that I contribute to the general welfare, giving as well as receiving nourishment and strength from a network of relationships.

The issue of childcare is an especially apt expression of that inter-connectedness because it has the potential to unite three large groups whose interests tend to be otherwise diverse: students, staff and faculty. Given our varying professional outlooks, we usually want different things. On this issue, if we can agree to work together and articulate a common vision, our needs are identical.

If we all pull together, our collective strength multiplies. I believe that we can all help each other out: thinking together about the fundamental need for childcare, as an expression of our common humanity, and working together to achieve the goals that we have agreed on.

I know it won't be easy. The expenses are large and the resources seem meager. So we'll have to figure out ways of creating new resources - not out of nothing, but out of our own strength of common purpose.

I believe those of us concerned about this issue need to do two things. First, we must make the case: President Likins, this is what we have to do, and here are the reasons why we have to do it. Then we have to work together, students, staff, faculty and administration, to develop practical means for accomplishing our goals.

Some of us have already begun thinking along strategic lines; I hope others of you will join us in that effort. I welcome your suggestions.

John Ulreich is a professor of English and a member of the University Commission on the Status of Women.