A Resolution of the University of Minnesota

Faculty Consultative Committee

and

Senate Consultative Committee

Seeking a Commitment to High-Quality Campus Child Care

The recent announcement of the 2019 planned closure of the University of Minnesota Child Development Center came as a surprise to most faculty, staff, and students. The center has a reputation for high quality child care, as evidenced by the significant demand for its services. It signals the University's commitment to supporting faculty, staff, and students raising young children, and serves as an important tool in supporting University parents, in recruitment and retention, and in fostering collaborations among faculty and staff. Furthermore, having high-quality campus child care is central to the University's commitment to gender equity and hiring and retaining more women faculty members.

Regardless of the reasons for CEHD's decision, we feel it is important to see a University-level commitment to providing quality campus child care, ideally in a form that can more effectively accommodate the demand present. We note that the majority of our peer and aspirational peer institutions made such commitments.

We also find unacceptable the complete lack of consultation with the governance system prior to making and announcing this decision. We recognize that the scope of the Senate and its committees does not reach into the operations of colleges and system campuses. We reject, however, the notion that having a key service operated within a college obviates the need to consult on the proposed discontinuation of that service.

Specifically:

1. We condemn the lack of consultation prior to the decision to close CDC. We seek assurance that future decisions with a major impact systemwide or across the Twin Cities campuses will receive substantive consultation, even when the responsible official is a Dean or Chancellor.
2. We lament that the manner in which the closure announcement was made, prior to having a process in place for designing a replacement solution, is demoralizing to the CDC community, including CDC staff and parents of children who are currently or were in the past part of the CDC community. The announcement threatens to dismantle those staff (as they are recruited away) before they have an opportunity to participate in the replacement, and threatens to undermine to potential succession of CDC by encouraging parents to remove their children if they are able to find alternative care. We ask the administration to take over operation of CDC centrally now, committing to continuing its operation until and unless a preferred replacement is in place. We also ask the administration to commit to reach out to the CDC leadership and staff to engage them in the process and to take steps as needed to prevent significant staff departures prior to the identification of a replacement child care solution.
3. We feel the announcements made so far fall short of articulating a University commitment to providing a quality child care solution. We believe that this is a high-priority service for the University to provide, and we seek a clear statement that the University is committed to providing such a service without interruption. This commitment should not be conditioned on the success of an RFP process.
4. We appreciate the Provost's commitment to an open process informed by an advisory committee including stakeholders and experts, and we pledge our cooperation in helping explore solutions that can both maintain quality and increase the scope of operation to serve more parents and children. We would emphasize the urgency of this task, and urge that the scope of this process include evaluating the option of maintaining and expanding the CDC (under University operation).
5. Finally, we recognize that these issues are specific to the Twin Cities Campuses, but we would reiterate our support for ensuring access to child care appropriate to each system campus, in consultation with the faculty, staff, and students of each campus.

Unanimously approved by FCC and SCC on 2/15/18