Graduate Student Council seeking to remedy problem

University childcare resources are in high demand and short supply, according to the results of a survey that will be announced today in a press conference.

The Graduate Student Dependent and Child Care Survey revealed that 23 percent of UA's 8,000 graduate students have dependents less than 18 years old, while 22 percent of those surveyed indicated they plan to have their first or an additional child while still in school. Furthermore, one-fourth of those surveyed had incomes below the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

"To know that one quarter of our graduate students live below the poverty line is particularly disturbing because poverty has a negative impact on health and well-being," said Jennifer Runquist, the nursing doctoral student who conducted the survey.

The Graduate and Professional Student Council, the Graduate College and the Office of Student Financial Aid sponsored the undertaking. No similar data is available regarding the undergraduate population, according to the Office of Student Financial Aid and the Dean of Students Office.

"Being on the Graduate Student Council, I felt I had an obligation to my constituents," Runquist said, adding that maternal and infant health is her passion.

"I wanted to focus on a childcare agenda," she said. "I found that we didn't even have any clue how many students have children, nor did we know what they want."

The survey indicated that more students have children than UA realized, she said. The resulting recommendations focus mainly on increasing funding to the resources that are already available, increasing student awareness of those resources and adding resources like an on-campus childcare facility and childcare scholarships and grants.

The vast majority of students surveyed, 87 percent, were not aware of UA's Life and Work Connections office, which administers programs like the Student Childcare Subsidy Program and the Sick Child Program.

"When you don't have resources to give, you don't publicize yourself very broadly because you will only disappoint people," said Pete Morris, outgoing president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council. Morris will conduct today's press conference.

The way Morris understands the process, UA currently administers about $62,000, which is then awarded in $1,000 allocations for childcare subsidies. That means approximately 4,000 students apply for 62 scholarships, he said.

"The answer comes down, really firmly and clearly, that no, we don't have effective childcare on campus," he said.

Morris stressed the need to ensure that the administration knows how important the issue is.

"We need to come up with a model that will help us move forward and provide students with better access," he said.

Since the survey's completion, Morris has been in close contact with Saundra Taylor, Vice President for Campus Life, who he said has pledged $100,000 to childcare resources. Taylor could not be reached for comment.

The problem, Morris said, is that the money has to be approved through the All Funds Budgeting Process within the UA Finance Committee, which is very competitive. In rough numbers, about $20 million in requests are submitted while only $4 million is available, he said.

In the meantime, several organizations are working on creative solutions so the problem can be tackled as soon as possible, although he was not at liberty to go into details on them, he said.

Additionally, the Commission on the Status of Women, created by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1989 to assess the conditions of employment for women at Arizona's three universities, has been working on childcare issues for two years, according to professor of English John Ulreich.

Ulreich and assistant humanities professor Michelle Bolduc head a workgroup that is preparing a white paper to present to UA President Pete Likins and his cabinet May 12. A white paper is an official document either stating or recommending a policy or policies.

"Since the document is still very much in progress, I can't say anything about the details at this stage," Ulreich wrote in an e-mail. While the CSW does not make policies, they plan to recommend certain actions to the president and his cabinet for their consideration, he added.

The press conference will be held at 2 p.m. in the Picacho Room of the Student Union Memorial Center.