Childcare Center Reopens to SUU Community

Published: July 06, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes

SUU’s University Childcare Advisory Committee is re-opening the childcare program offered at the Beverly Taylor Sorenson College of Education. While the childcare program at SUU faces considerable changes to expand its facilities over the next year, its current location will once again open after Labor Day to accommodate a growing demand amongst SUU faculty, staff and students.

After several weeks of deliberation about the center’s future, the committee started formulating plans to expand—rather than eliminate—childcare services at SUU. The Center had originally planned to close the on-campus childcare facility completely, so this news comes as a relief to many who have come to appreciate the high-quality, supervised care SUU students and staff have been providing for years.

One of the advisory committee’s primary concerns was to evaluate the childcare services at SUU in comparison to similar services across the rest of the state. The review focused on safety, accreditation and programming. While SUU met all minimum standards, the committee, with the full support of SUU President Michael Benson, agrees an overhaul is necessary.

In addition, the committee determined that the Center should be supported by the University as a necessary and needed service. The University and the College of Education are working together to secure funding that will not solely come from the College of Education.

The childcare’s restructuring will mainly focus on the facility, which is too small to accommodate the demands placed upon the current center. All parties involved hope for a permanent resolution by the Fall of 2008, when the Utah Shakespearean Festival will re-appropriate the care center’s current building.

Until then, parents who thought they’d be left out in the cold can now re-enlist their children. In addition, parents who’d in the past been hoping for a spot or two to open up, now have an equal opportunity to get their children enrolled in the SUU childcare program. Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and a waiting list will be maintained for children who are not accepted due to space.

Childcare applications can be picked up and submitted to Suzanne Brinkerhoff in SUU’s Multipurpose Center, room 212. Until a new facility is secured, enrollment this fall semester will include up to four toddlers (ages 1-2) and 15 pre-school children (ages 2-4). Infants will not be accepted until the new facility is complete.

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