DRAFT CHILDCARE VISION STATEMENT
It is increasingly clear that family benefits are an important recruitment and retention tool for faculty, staff and administrators in America’s universities. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education (10/6/06), Duke, Berkeley, Davis, Lehigh, Cornell, University of Florida and University of Washington are expanding their family-friendly benefits in order to recruit and retain new faculty. More recently (April 2007), both Stanford and Yale universities announced expansions of childcare benefits. . Yet not only schools with large endowments that have seen the value in expanding family-friendly policies. Increasingly, to compete effectively for quality faculty and staff, smaller schools such as University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Penn State are doing the same.
It is well-documented that childcare support is one of the most significant factors for faculty members’ success. These trends are particularly important given the desire to retain women in institutions of higher learning.
We believe that in order for the University of Pittsburgh to continue to recruit and retain top faculty, researchers, and students, the following long-term childcare goals must be met. Childcare-related goals that would put University of Pittsburgh on par with other top-ranked research universities in the country would include:
1. Increasing Childcare Facilities on Campus. An important aspect of any institutional childcare arrangement is enough facility space on site to meet the needs of those who wish to use it. While some families will choose to place their children closer to home, there is a strong demand for on-site daycare at universities around the country. This is evident in the long waiting list for existing facilities at Pitt, as well as agitation for on-site childcare facilities on other campuses around the country. Other universities have responded, including SUNY - Stonybrook, Ohio State, Penn State, and University of Kentucky, who have recently added more daycare centers on campus. To recruit and retain quality faculty and staff, Pitt must follow suit.
On-site childcare is the preferred choice for many families for a number of reasons. First, it offers the convenience of proximity to work, saving time in families’ otherwise hectic schedules and leaving employees more time to excel both at their work and at home. Second, it offers employees a sense of community with other families who also work at the university, which can also contribute to a high-morale environment in which it is easier to retain employees. Third, unlike off-site care, university facilities’ vacation schedule is generally synchronized with the university calendar, so employees pay only for the care they need.
Even the best childcare facilities, however, will fall short as a recruiting tool if there are too few spaces to accommodate incoming faculty and staff. The quality of the care must also be on par with the best childcare centers available off-site. University of Pittsburgh should ensure that childcare facilities at Pitt are sufficient to meet the demand from Pitt employees and full-time students. This would also alleviate the risk that scarce slots might allocated inequitably, causing resentment and loss of employee morale.
(SUNY - Stonybrook, Ohio State, Penn State, and University of Kentucky have recently added more daycare centers on campus.)
2. Adding a Childcare Subsidy as a Benefit to All Faculty, Staff and Full-time Students. Another important aspect of a competitive childcare benefit system is affordability. Currently, full-time monthly childcare costs for one child can run between [???][CC1]Id’ use PGH AVERAGE, but I don’t know where to get it. I would imagine approx. $600-$1,000], causing serious hardship for families who must also begin saving for college. Many corporations and institutions of higher learning now provide subsidies to offset these costs of doing business, which particularly impact the likelihood of women remaining in the workforce.
Ideally, all faculty, staff and full-time students should receive assistance from the university to cover these costs, whether their children are placed in Pitt facilities or elsewhere in the community. Such a system would put University of Pittsburgh on part with universities such Stanford and Cornell,[I could only find Stanford) that have instituted a subsidy program for all university families with children under six. To maximize equity, it should be allocated on a sliding scale, with a higher percentage of a family’s childcare cost covered for lower-income students and employees. In no case, however, should the subsidy be less than [20[CC2]%] [UE3]of an employee’s total childcare costs.
3. Providing {On-Site}[UE4] Sick Care. Childcare facilities and subsidies are primarily of value to employees with children under six, but families with older children, like those with preschoolers, additionally require emergency care on days when their children are too sick to attend school, but not sick enough to require a parent to stay home with them. A number of universities [check out UC, Iowa State I think – I didn’t see any] ]University of Wisconsin-Madison’s program is an example of a have adopted a model for on-site sick care available to families with a mildly sick child. Such centers are staffed by registered nurses and include beds, televisions, books, and video games so that children have a safe place to spend the day close to their parents’ offices.[1] This model would greatly minimize the number of days that parents, often women, must miss work to attend to sick children. Since such parents often use their own sick leave to take care of their children instead of themselves, it would also promote the health of all university employees, as it would reduce the likelihood of an employee coming to work sick and unproductive themselves later, and possibly infecting others.
4. Providing Emergency/Back up Care. Other emergencies arise that affect employees’ ability to put in face time at the office. In Pittsburgh, the most frequent of these during the winter months are school snow days. When the public schools shut down due to weather, but the university does not, professors and students with children often cannot come to class. This problem could be resolved either with some sort of on-site emergency care (perhaps coupled with the on-site sick care facility) or Univerisity sponsorship of a babysitting service with on-call, pre-screened sitters available for a day on short notice. Such a private service currently exists in Pittsburgh: a company called Rent-A-Mom charges families a sign-up fee of approximately $100 and then $15/per hour for a four-hour minimum for childcare booked as little as a day in advance. The university could provide this service to all employees by covering the sign-up fee and providing reimbursement for a portion of the hourly costs. At University of Arizona, for example, the university employee pays $2 an hour to an agency on call through university contract, who sends a licensed care-giver to the faculty member’s home to take care of a child on short notice. Other examples of universities with such programs include Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Michigan State, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Iowa State, University of Illinois, Princeton and University of Michigan.[2] (Stanford, University of Arizona do this)
5. Creating Nursing/Pumping Rooms. The World Health Organization encourages all women to breastfeed their children until at least the age of two, but mothers going back on the job after a few months’ maternity leave often give up due to lack of space, privacy and support for nursing or pumping breastmilk. Since early termination of breastfeeding leads to a higher risk of childhood disease, including asthma, Pitt could save money on health costs in the long run by encouraging mothers of young children to continue breastfeeding. Simple steps the university could take to do this would be to establish safe, comfortable rooms in each building, separate from the restrooms, where women could pump or nurse in privacy. This would particularly benefit staff without private offices or graduate students who share offices. Such rooms currently exist in the School of Nursing and could serve as models.
5. Considering Childcare a Legitimate Travel and Business Expense. We also recommend the University update its Travel and Business Expense policy to permit reimbursements from university research funds for childcare expenses associated with conference travel. Currently, University policy 05-07-01 considers child care a “non-reimburseable” expense alongside “fines for parking violations,” “hotel movie rentals” and “luxury limousine services.” This policy suggests that childcare expenses are analogous to frivolous hobbies rather than an unavoidable cost of traveling on business for young parents. It poses a disincentive for faculty to travel to research conferences where the cost of childcare in a conference hotel can run $20 per hour. This policy particularly affects women with small children, who are less likely than men to be willing to leave their child at home for several days on end, especially if breastfeed. It is thus a discriminatory policy that put parents, particularly women, at a disadvantage in professional enrichment opportunities so crucial to tenure. In the interests of equity, the university should consider child care expenses a reimbursable expense analogous to travel, lodgings, conference registration fees, hotel incidentals and other unavoidable costs associated with business travel.
5. Streamlining the Childcare Savings Plan Process. ------??? (perhaps ask the committee if we should add this). Current problems: multi-step process of being reimbursed, incompatibility of reimbursement website with Macintosh OS…
[1]
[2] See “Emergency Back-up Childcare.” ----
[CC1]I’d use PGH AVERAGE, but I don’t know where to get it. I would imagine approx. $600-$1,000
[CC2]What do you think of this? I was thinking about what you said about higher salary-earners not needing the subsidy, but the truth is every family needs a subsidy if we are making the argument that these benefits are recruitment tools. The most competitive faculty, for example, that Pitt would like to steal from other universities are also going to be in a position to bargain for good salaries, but some benefit should sill be offered, it seems to me. I’m thinking there should be a minimal amt available to everyone, with lower wage earners qualifying for even more than that, perhaps up to 50%.
[UE3]I see what you mean. For this document, I don’t think we need to suggest a particular subsidy percentage.
[UE4]I’m not sure we want to say on-site. I think many places just subsidize back-up daycare for sickness and other emergencies and/or provide a list of babysitters.