More Childcare Options at OSU as Part of A Family Friendly Culture

I am no longer a parent but I know the struggles of working parents especially in a small town with few resources.

Let's give more support to our families, yes lets be the change.

Come on OSU, be the change.

Even those of us employees without children recognize the importance of competent, affordable childcare, lactation rooms, and work-life balance for all of our colleagues.

I support working families. Beth Zimmermann, PhD Licensed Psychologist CAPS

My daughters are now 26 and 23, but I well remember the incredible challenges and compromises that were required to ensure they received adequate care. I'm fairly certain my ex-husband's career suffered because he (alone among all his male colleagues) took time off to stay home with sick children.

My son has been on the OSU waiting list for almost 2 years now. I suspect he will never attend.

I got on the Beaver Beginnings waiting list for my son when I was 3 months pregnant. He is almost a year old and I still haven't gotten in. The long wait list and the cost is ridiculous!! We need convenient affordable childcare for working parents. The college is all about "work life balance" but if we can't access childcare or afford it on campus how is that even possible. We need some major changes for working parents!!!!

I got on the Beaver Beginnings waiting list for my son when I was 3 months pregnant. He is almost a year old and I still haven't gotten in. The long wait list and the cost is ridiculous!! We need convenient affordable childcare for working parents. The college is all about "work life balance" but if we can't access childcare or afford it on campus how is that even possible. We need some major changes for working parents!!!!

On-campus childcare is good for employees, good for students, good for children, and good for the community.

I support this petition. The waitlist at Beaver Beginnings, OSU’s main daycare, is currently larger than the number of kids at BB, so clearly much more daycare is needed. The planned addition of a new smaller daycare later this year will be helpful, but insufficient. Daycare is even less available for faculty and staff than it is for students because BB gives preference to students. The preference makes sense because the center is funded through student fees, but it shuts faculty and staff out of campus daycare. There is a critical need for accessible daycare for kids of new faculty. I know from experience how difficult the first years are as a new faculty member. I had two months from when I was offered my position to when I started at OSU almost 6 years ago. I was on the waitlist at BB for 17 months, so I spent more than a year without access to campus daycare. All of the other Corvallis area daycares were full too, so my family’s only options were to have my wife stay home or to send our young son to an uncertified in-home day care. OSU invests a huge amount of resources in new faculty. Investing in daycare accessible to new faculty seems to be an efficient way to put new faculty on a path to success. Finally, BB and the other on campus daycares are wonderful. They provide a first class service for OSU kids, they enable OSU parents to spend more time with their kids, they provide jobs and internship opportunities for OSU students to become childcare professionals, and they are a great place for OSU families to come together—which strengthens the OSU community.

The way OSU treats working parents is appalling on so many levels. They could start by not taking away your health insurance if you have to take family leave in your first 12 months of employment (before FMLA kicks in). Paid leave, childcare options, and in particular on-campus infant care are desperately needed.

Thanks for doing this Autumn. Childcare and parental leave needs to be a top priority at both OSU and in this country. It is hard to not to think this grave issue would be handled quite differently if men birthed babies.

I have a 18 month old son and while I need to get him into a day care facility by the end of the summer, I have yet to find one I am okay with him being at. Most have gotten back to me with instructions to sit on the wait list that measures longer and longer every day. I also can't afford a lot of the higher prices because I am the only one able to work out of my husband and I because he is an international student. Some better options would be great along these lines. Especially for staff and students at the university.

Finally! Nice work on organizing. I've been at OSU for 9 years and after 1 year I had a 2 year old and newborn, 8 years ago. It was hard and I had lots of family support and my partner stayed at home with the kiddos. I hear this struggle from lots of faculty and staff. Thanks

I am in full support of this petition. As a classified worker at OSU, watching my coworker attempt to navigate juggling her career, motherhood, and be the sole breadwinner of her family has been stressful for her. As I begin to think of starting a family of my own, I realize that the situation seems out of my reach at the moment. With the money I make as classified staff there's no way that I would be able to pay my rent (let alone a mortgage), student loans, utilities, other bills, and groceries and add on childcare. Our closest relatives live five hours away, so leaving a child in the care of family would be out of the question. It is of the utmost importance to provide more available and affordable childcare on this campus, not only for faculty, instructors, and professional faculty, but also for classified support staff who serve faculty and student needs. If you want to retain the dedicated workers who serve the students and this University community, I urge you to create more affordable childcare options and provide more flexibility to those who seek to balance their work responsibilities with their personal lives.

We should talk Autumn. I am so glad you have (seemingly) recovered and your child is now in good childcare.

This, a thousand times this! I'm consistently appalled by the choices faced by women who dare to attempt to have a child and a career simultaneously. It is a terrible irony that it feels like a positive thing to have had my daughter when I was 20 and had no career plans! I stayed home with her for almost two years, and even then it was difficult to leave her at daycare. While many aspects of women's inequality in society are beyond the scope of what any one institution can do, providing child care of sufficient quantity, convenience, and affordability is something that can and should be immediately prioritized by OSU.

This is essential. Not only that more childcare be available, but quality care which reflects the values and standards of young children education of OSU.

I 110% stand behind this petition. Being a parent is the hardest job any person can have. Being a working parent is even tougher. Being a working parent trying to juggle childcare, work and home life is the most challenging of all.