Childcare Committee

Cornell Childcare Services Sub-Committee Meeting
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
10:00 — 11:30 p.m.
Day Hall B12
MINUTES

Voting members present

Brenda Marston*, Amy O’Donnell, KC Rose, Phil Davis, Cresten Mansfeldt, Laurie Miller *Minutes recorder

Unable to attend

Mark Jasinski, Yael Levitte, Sue Dale-Hall, Michelle Artibee, Eileen Whang

I. Welcome and introductions.

II. Committee business:

1. Volunteer to take minutes. Brenda.
2. Open positions for 09–10. 2 faculty and 1 undergrad. Brenda has exhausted her list of possible faculty members; all are either already committed doing other volunteer work on IC3’s (Ithaca Community Childcare Center) Board, CCCC’s (Cornell Child Care Center) Parents Advisory Committee (PAC) and elsewhere or have scheduling conflicts this semester. Brenda will remind the Faculty Senate that we need members, and Laurie may have some suggestions. Suggested that we see if any undergrads associated with CCCC are interested, or students involved with the Women’s Resource Center. Brenda will check both possibilities.
3. Vote to approve 6/10/09 and 9/15/09 minutes. The June minutes passed with 3 in favor, 3 abstaining since they weren’t on the committee last June. The September minutes passed with 4 in favor, 2 abstaining.
4. UA approval of our 3 position statements. Brenda summarized the 3 position statements recently approved by the UA and the process our committee has followed to raise concerns and influence issues. We have both worked informally through communication with Human Resources and others on campus (eg. Dean of Students was glad to receive our statement on Affordability, and HR responded to our advice about shifting the allocation of childcare grant funds and other issues) and formally through the University Assembly channels. The formal channels of getting resolutions approved by our “parent” committee, the Family Services Committee, and then the whole University Assembly is the way to communicate our views to the President and Provost.
5. We also discussed the value of updating the Affordability/Accessibility document with this year’s data and our hope that Yael will again contribute to handling the data and drafting this important report.

III. Update on Student Childcare Grant. (Cresten Mansfeldt)

1. Cresten summarized the concerns graduate and professional students have had with the changes to the distribution of child care grants and actions taken so far. The student letter and Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) resolution passed last night were distributed prior to the meeting and detail the studens’ concerns. Some of them are:
   1. Maximum award reduced from $5000 max to $1500.
   2. Payment delayed until January.
   3. Last year, $150,000 was allocated for students; but $260,000 was actually distributed. Only $150,000 will be distributed this year.
   4. No communication with students prior to announcement. Students had planned on this year’s award being similar. The change caused immediate difficulty to students, both financial strain and the need to alter childcare arrangements. Rose Casey and other students wrote the letter to the President.
   5. Among Ivies, we are only university to have a grant program for student parents. Students understand the university’s financial crisis, but want Cornell to remain outstanding on these issues and to recognize the particular stresses and demands on students who are parents.
   6. Brenda commented on the stress to both the children and parents of having to change childcare arrangements. KC commented on the impact on childcare providers when their families face sudden financial hardship. Brenda commented that more childcare providers have openings now, and cuts in childcare grants have ripple effects in the Ithaca community.
2. What can our committee do? Make sure students know about our Affordability document. Asked Cresten to let students know that we care about this issue, will discuss it again at our next meeting, and want to support them.

IV. Human Resources updates and Cornell Child Care Center (CCCC):

1. OHR assessment of parent satisfaction at the CCCC. Parking fee success and other updates. (Brenda shared news from Michelle Artibee, Work and Family Programs, HR)
   1. OHR (Office of Human Resources) is conducting an independent (of Bright Horizons) parent satisfaction survey of the CCCC. BH does conduct an annual parent survey, however we felt it was important that we expand the scope of the survey and that one be performed as the client. Over the past few months there have been parents that have provided us with feedback about their experiences at the center and we’re taking that feedback seriously. The first step is to determine how widespread those concerns are and obtain a better understanding of the challenges, as well as positive experiences, families are having.
      
      The survey was emailed to parents that we had addresses for, and a hard copy notice was given to all families. There are over 60 responses so far, and once the deadline has passed (next Wednesday), we’ll begin the report. The aggregate results will be made available to committee and center families. The results will help us work with BH to establish additional goals/ performance measures for year #2.
2. Suggestions for HR’s CCCC website: http://www.ohr.cornell.edu/workLife/childCareCenter/index.html
   1. Brenda mentioned that she couldn’t find contact information for CCCC’s director online. Michelle explained that HR maintains the CCCC website; they want it clearly to be a Cornell facility. We do have a link to HR’s webpage on the CCCC from our committee website, and the HR site has lots of good information already. HR is now updating all of its web pages so it’s a good time to share any other ideas for additions or changes that members may have.
3. Committee thoughts on use of titles for childcare teachers
   1. Brenda and KC expressed by email some concerns about finding out that teachers at CCCC are called “Miss FirstName.” Michelle checked on it and reported: “Upon the opening of the center, the BH decision to have all female teachers given the prefix of Miss (Mrs. is not used, so marital status is not an issue) was a decision that was made together with the teachers and the preference was for the prefix Miss. However, it makes sense that the center revisits this regularly with input from the current teaching staff as well as the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) and therefore it will be on upcoming meeting agendas with these groups. Family diversity is very much so respected and supported at the center.”
   2. Committee discussion:
      1. KC: that practice is not typical in this region; don’t know of any other childcare around here that does that. It is out of context here. Phil: doesn’t fit local cultural and community norms. KC: was the first director possibly from the South?
      2. Amy: what if staff don’t like it? What do parents there think? Laurie: is it symptomatic of weird staff culture, could it be contributing to turnover? Do staff have a say? Phil: At Belle Sherman Elementary, titles are a matter of staff choice. Laurie: Do teachers get to choose how they are addressed? How do staff feel? Can individuals make their own decisions?
      3. KC: How about gender transgressive people? This practice could be a barrier to employment if using this title is an expectation of staff. “Miss” not only identifies women by their marital status, it emphasizes gender categories. Brenda: is this something we want to do with young children (emphasizing gender categories)? Saying that CCCC uses “Miss” for all women regardless of marital status is surprising too; that is just using the term inaccurately; why teach children that? (If you want a term that applies to all women, you could use Ms.)
      4. Is this something appropriate for our committee to address? This committee cares about the Center supporting the diversity goals of the University and the overall quality of the program and staff/ parent/ child satisfaction. We wouldn’t want potential families to feel excluded by Center policies. We care about this issue from those angles — since it deals with creating a comfortable environment for diverse people, and potential staff and parent satisfaction. We want to ask if staff and parents are comfortable with the practice and if the practice can be revisited.
      5. Cresten: coming from Minnesota, this feels uncomfortable to him. Feels disrespectful. People come to Cornell from all over and could be feeling uncomfortable by this practice.
      6. Phil voiced concerns about the scope and jurisdiction of our committee, getting involved in a single center’s policy, considering that no complaint was voiced to our committee.
      7. Members present decided Brenda should share these concerns with Michelle, ask her to informally convey them to the Director, and we’d like to hear back if staff are in fact comfortable with the practice. Also, Brenda will inquire with the PAC if the practice is ok with them.

V. Agenda for November meeting:

People working with both childcare grant programs will be invited to update us on this year’s process and results.

VI. Adjourn (11:40)