FIU should offer by-the-hour daycare to students with children

Rose Lopez/Contributing Writer

My youngest is barely one-year-old. I took her to class with me once or twice when she was an infant. Luckily, my professors and classmates didn’t mind (probably because my kid is so dang cute!), but she would be much more disruptive now that she’s walking and (kind of) talking.

Right now, the only place on campus students can take their children is the Children’s Creative Learning Center (CCLC) at MMC. 

The CCLC is part of FIU Student Affairs and is a Southern Association for Colleges and Schools accredited early education program for children ages two through five. The program is available to children of FIU students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as the local community, but FIU students get priority for enrollment. The children’s curriculum runs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., though children can be dropped off as early as 7:45 a.m. and stay as late as 6 p.m., with pickup times scheduled during transitions, like before lunch or after the children’s rest and nap time.

Big thumbs up to the CCLC for what they do. In reality though, the childcare services currently offered at FIU don’t actually seem to be designed with parent-students in mind.

The first problem is scheduling. Not every student with young children is on campus Monday through Friday during the Center’s hours. As a graduate student, I am only on campus in the evenings, and never more than three days a week; my husband, also a full-time FIU student, only took classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays last spring. Like most, if not all, students, our schedules change every semester and are subject to which requirements we need to fulfill, and the days and times those classes are available.

We also live 15 miles from MMC. In fact, according to US News and World Report, 93% of FIU students live off campus. Of course, not every one of those students has children. Still, for us, driving to FIU just to pick up and drop off the kids isn’t sustainable. 

Even if I did take class every day, the majority of my classes are at the Biscayne Bay Campus, not MMC. Yet BBC does not offer any childcare services, nor do any of FIU’s other satellite campuses.

Also, CCLC is only available to children ages two through five. But what about students with children of other ages? 

The other issue is affordability. The CCLC does offer a discounted rate to FIU students enrolled at least half-time, which, broken down, comes out to about $4 an hour. Care.com suggests $16 per hour in Miami. 

CCLC also participates in the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program grant, which covers the cost of childcare for students eligible for a Federal Pell Grant. The Pell Grant is only available to undergrads, though.

Graduate students don’t qualify for CCAMPIS. They also pay almost four times as much per credit for their own tuition as undergraduate students.

FIU does not keep a record of the number of enrolled students with children, but it begs the question, what’s the ratio of undergraduate to graduate students with kids?   

My husband and I are lucky that we have family willing to help. We’re also both veterans, so our tuition is all or partly covered by the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Our situation is unique, though, and balancing classes and studying and childcare and finances is still a constant struggle, and a huge source of anxiety. 

We’d juggle things better if we knew there was a safe place on any given FIU campus where we could drop the kids off, if only for a couple of hours, that wouldn’t break the bank. 

 

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The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

Featured image by FIU Flickr.