Northwestern’s child care committee will meet with administrators soon to discuss options they have explored about providing child care at NU. The meeting follows a February report from the committee that requested an on-site facility.
Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president for business and finance, met with Provost Lawrence Dumas on Friday to discuss the feasibility of either working with an existing child care provider or creating an on-site or near-campus location.
In addition to exploring the school’s options, administrators are trying to get a feel for what NU’s graduate students, faculty and staff would like to see in a child care facility, Sunshine said.
“Parents have different ideas depending on situations,” he said. “But there is an absolute consensus and strong agreement on the part of the administration that (child care) affects how people feel about their jobs.”
Dumas said despite the committee’s request for on-site care, other avenues could be more reasonable and appealing.
“I think it’s important to understand that no one approach would be sufficient,” he said. “The key is that you don’t try to take one single approach and say, ‘That’s what we’re going to do — we wash our hands of any other approach.'”
NU is the only Big Ten school that does not offer on-site child care to its faculty and staff.
The university’s committee, lead by Katherine Faber, requested in its report that an on-campus site be created, but University President Henry Bienen wrote in a formal response last month that he would like to consider other options as well.
Administrators have contacted a range of local child care providers about their interest and ability in working with NU, Dumas said.
“We sense that the Evanston child care network wants to work with NU,” he said. “We sense that people in business are willing to increase capacity if they know there are some guaranteed customers.”
NU faculty and staff already use outside providers, Sunshine said.
“There’s quite a few hundred children of NU faculty who are being provided with child care services by someone outside the home,” he said. “There are a lot of providers in Evanston that provide quality services of all kinds.”
Working with an outside venue could eliminate two problems of providing child care: meeting demand and navigating Evanston city ordinances. To meet total demand, companies and universities often need to offer vouchers in addition to an on-site facility, he said.
NU still is considering options for creating its own facility on or near campus, Sunshine said, including constructing a new building, converting an existing building or leasing off-campus space.
The university owns houses along Sheridan Road that could serve as child care sites when departments move to the new wing being built in Kresge Centennial Hall, Dumas said. But Evanston officials might not approve the use of the empty houses for child care facilities, he said.
NU previously faced city opposition in 1995 against construction of the Transportation Center at 600 Foster St., he said.
“The City of Evanston does not give us complete freedom to use our property as we would like to use it,” he said. “Evanston actually controls whether or not we can have on-site child care on the campus east of Sheridan Road. Something in the city ordinance says that land is for college-age students, not young children.”
