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Seaver College faculty have established a committee to look into providing a day care service for members of the Pepperdine community in the future.
Dr. Robert Williams, president of the Seaver Faculty Association this year, started the ad hoc Committee on the Family at the beginning of this year when he took over as president of the Faculty Association.
“We wanted to assemble a group that would look at this issue because it is a real need that is not being met on campus,” Williams said.
Ad hoc committees are not permanent but created to deal with specific needs for short-term issues. This committee will seek to deal with family issues on campus.
“There were enough issues related to families, I thought starting this committee was a good thing to do, maybe it will continue next year, I don’t know,” Williams said, “It would be possible to make it permanent. It at least makes the administration take a good hard look at the issue.”
The committee was formed at the beginning of the fall semester and includes six faculty members: Dr. Mary Mullins, the Chair of the Humanities and Teacher Education Division, Dr. Cynthia Colburn of Fine Arts, Dr. Juanie Walker of Communication, Dr. Jeff Jaspers of Natural Science and Dr. Brian Newman of Social Sciences. Dr. Regan Schafer of the Business Division was also a part of the committee, but is on maternity leave.
“We’re talking about a potentially very large group of people that could benefit from this,” Williams said, “Faculty from Seaver, the law school, the School of Public Policy, staff that lives on campus, and students.”
Williams said that while fairly concrete plans for an on-campus day care were circulating some time ago, but nothing has happened.
The addition of a day care facility to Pepperdine’s campus could be beneficial, but Mullins states, it won’t happen overnight.
“It would be wonderful to have day care on campus here at Pepperdine, but it will probably take years to develop,” Mullins said, “It’s just in the discussion phase, there will be all kinds of ramifications.”
The committee has held three meetings and have focused more on getting current needs met, by researching local child care providers, the days and times they are open, what ages they take, and who has openings.
Freshman Katie Stjernholm said she feels like day care would be an excellent resource to have on campus. “One of my best friends from back home has a baby, and she is still attending college. They have a day care on campus, and I don’t know how she would get through without it,” Stjernholm said, “If Pepperdine had this kind of resource, it would make it easier for people to pursue education, even if they have other issues too.”
Aside from students, the opportunity to have children cared for on campus could greatly enhance Pepperdine’s appeal to older and graduate students.
“This would have the potential to draw graduate students who have already started families,” Mullins said. “When I was at Notre Dame, I remember a lot of the graduate students had children, and since Notre Dame had a facility on campus, it was nice for them.”
The committee will continue to meet and put together a proposal that they will present to the administration. This work will have to be completed before the committee expires at the end of this school year.
Dr. Paul Contino, father of two, said he is excited that someone is taking a look at this issue.
“I think it is a great idea. As a parent, I think it would wonderful to have the kids close by,” Contino said.
As a mother of two, it is also easy for Mullins to see how this sort of resource would benefit the Pepperdine community.
“My children are in school now, a kindergartener and a third grader, and I know how difficult it is to have a baby when you’re teaching, this would have been great when we first came to Pepperdine,” she said.
Although the project is still completely in the planning stages, Williams appreciates the fact that the issue is getting attention and consideration.
“I think while Pepperdine does a lot of things really well, we’re probably really behind most universities, in respect to day care at least,” he said.
Submitted 03-01-2007
MALIBU, CA
