Each morning, Janice Robinson drives from her home in Sandy to West Valley City to leave her 20-month daughter at day care. Then Robinson drives to the University of Utah to attend classes in the morning and work in the afternoon.
At the end of the day, Janice drives from the U. of U. to West Valley City to pick up her daughter. Then they drive back to Sandy."It's ridiculous," said Robinson, a sophomore studying biology.
But, for now, Robinson insists on leaving her daughter at her West Valley caregiver's home.
"I just like the one I have a lot -- I like the environment," she said. "They're people who meet my standards."
Robinson is one of many parents trying to finish college. They struggle to find good, affordable child care that flexes and bends with their unconventional schedule as students.
But University of Utah student government officers are trying to make things a little easier.
On Friday, they announced they would funnel about $150,000 in student fees toward a new child-care center for children of students. This money will be added to $100,000 already set aside, said Kris Hale, campus child-care coordinator.
The child-care center will be the U.'s seventh, except this center will exclusively care for children of students, according to Ben McAdams, student body president.
The center should cater to the students' needs -- offering part-time care, early morning and late evening hours, scholarships, subsidies and sliding-scale fees for parents, McAdams said.
McAdams said income earned from part-time jobs is rarely equivalent to the cost of child care.
Robinson agrees.
"I have a part-time job and my father pays my baby's day care two weeks out of the month because I can't afford to pay for it," she said.
The $250,000, will be used to gut and renovate three home economics rooms in the Alfred Emery Building on President's Circle. Oakes and McAdams hope it will be finished by the beginning of fall semester 2001.
Furthermore, McAdams and Ryan Oakes, U. student body vice president, said they hope to establish an endowment with money from companies and private donors to subsidize child-care costs for students.
The child-care center will be "state-of-the-art," Hale said. "There will be solid research and theory behind age-appropriate activities in the center."
Hales said she hopes to accept infants through 5 years old.
The child-care center will seek accreditation from a national child-care center organization, and students majoring in early childhood development will intern at the care center for one semester.
"What's exciting is the university has such a rich staff. . . . They can invite people in to enhance the curriculum," Hale said.
Oakes said university officials have known of students' child-care problem since the early 1990s. In 1994, the U. conducted a needs assessment study and determined 2,000 children of students needed child care.
"Originally, students were raising money for their own child care," Hale said. The students raised $100,000. However, the university chose to subcontract with Kinder Care. The $100,000 was put into an account and now will be withdrawn for the new child-care center.
Robinson said she would be interested in on-campus child care because "I work on campus so it would be good to just pick her up there on campus."