For many University of Wisconsin student parents struggling to balance the challenging demands of parenting and classes, relying on campus support services is the only way they can manage to stay in school.
In addition to wrestling with the usual issues of increasing tuition, hefty textbook costs and a lack of affordable housing, student parents must also worry about affordable and convenient daycare, issues of isolation, scheduling classes around available childcare and a host of other issues.
To help student parents overcome these challenges, several organizations on campus offer student-parent support services. The Office of Campus Child Care, a program affiliated with the university, has worked to set up a coordinated childcare system on campus and strives to provide student parents with resources and information.
“We encourage any student parent on campus to let us know if there’s anything they’re interested in that they don’t find. Then we’ll do our best to try to accommodate that need,” Campus Childcare Coordinator Lynn Edlefson said.
On average, the OCCC serves approximately 400-600 student-parent families each semester and 120-150 during the summer. The majority of these student-parent families utilize the OCCC by applying for its Child Care Tuition Assistance Program, which gives each family funding to cover an average of 25 percent of the costs of childcare per semester.
“This is a really good program that not all campuses have,” Edlefson said, noting that the CCTAP has become a national model for other universities to follow.
CCTAP is funded largely by the student government through segregated fees, but it also receives significant funding from the Teaching Assistants’ Association. During the 2003-04 academic year, the student government provided approximately $650,000 to the program and the TAA contributed about $70,000.
“This program is such a wise investment. Studies have shown that for every dollar spent on high-quality childcare, there is an $8.52 return to society,” Edlefson said, noting that high-quality childcare leads to more well-adjusted children who are more likely to seek higher education and contribute more to the state’s economy.
There are currently eight campus childcare centers affiliated with the OCCC. While student parents can use their CCTAP funding with one of these daycares, they are not restricted to only these centers. Awards from CCTAP can be used at any regulated childcare center in the state of Wisconsin.
In addition to CCTAP, the OCCC also has a list-serve e-mail address that serves as a means for student parents to contact each other and for the OCCC to disseminate announcements about support groups, workshops or other activities that may be of interest to student parents. The OCCC also sends out all-campus e-mails each semester and targets orientation events in an effort to increase awareness about the services they offer. While Edlefson hopes that these efforts will reach more student parents, she is conscious of the fact that many student parents are still unaware of the services offered.
“We’re still missing people,” she said, adding that most student parents learn about the OCCC’s services and programs solely by word of mouth.
In addition to the services provided by the OCCC, the Campus Women’s Center also has a daycare program called Kidstime, which matches volunteers with a student-parent family and provides up to three hours of free childcare per week.
Despite these services, student parents may still feel the stress of isolation, suffer from depression or feel strain in their relationships with their partners. In these cases, University Health Services offers a range of free counseling services that may be especially beneficial for student parents.
“We put an emphasis on getting people in quickly. For their first appointment, we try to get people in within a day or two, even if it’s only for a brief session,” said Bob McGrath, director of the UHS counseling center.
The UHS counseling service usually offers between eight and 12 free counseling sessions before referring individuals to a paid professional within the community. For student parents who need more immediate help, there is a Parental Stress Center located off-campus in Madison that also provides a 24-hour Stress Line.
Even with the services already offered, programs such as the OCCC continue to look for new ways to support the student parents they say they have a deep respect for.
“Student parents are very tenacious,” Edlefson said. “I’m amazed at what they do.”
