EXCERPTS:
While on Feb. 1, students across Canada will call on the federal government to increase public funding to post-secondary education, to drop student debt, and to regulate tuition fees, Lakehead students will address another barrier to accessible education when they vote on whether to increase funding for Nanabijou - the childcare centre located on campus.
When students go to the polls on Feb. 2, 7, and 8 to elect next year's LUSU executive, they will also be asked if they support a $5 increase in student fees. That money would go towards expanding Nanabijou, which hopes to expand to a new building by spring of 2013.
Currently located between Bartley residence and the residence cafeteria, Nanabijou accommodates 67 children. Slightly less than half are the children of students or alumni; some staff and faculty also use the centre.
A visit to Nanabijou goes a long way towards explaining the need for a new centre. Upon being asked what issues a new centre would help to resolve, centre director Sheila Wilhelm reaches over her shoulder to grab a thick binder labelled "Wait List."
"You're looking at it," she replies. The binder holds the names of about 300 children waiting for spots at the daycare, 200 of whom are the children of Lakehead students or alumni.
Wait times to get students into Nanabijou during the school year can be as long as three years, she says. "Probably [the space issue] came to a head about ten years ago. We realized that our waiting list was getting bigger and bigger, and we can't accommodate all of the people who apply for space anymore."
Tammy Squitti, the chairperson of the centre's volunteer board of directors and the mother of a nine year old child who went through Nanabijou, adds, "There's no space even for our staff to take a break. Of course, it's primarily not about our staff: you can see that the living quarters are also the sleeping quarters, are also the dining quarters for the children. We just want to be up to the standards of a lot of the other daycares."
The organization wants to more than double its capacity, as well as to provide a modern facility with better amenities. Building a new facility is projected to cost around $2 million. The student contribution would largely be used to pay down the centre's mortgage, they say, helping to avoid wasted money on interest payments.
Of the proposed $5 levy, $4 would go towards the build. The remaining dollar would create grants for student parents. Most students, with generally low income levels, already receive a provincial subsidy covering their childcare expenses; other students who do not qualify for the subsidy would be aided by the money.
LUSU will be championing the "yes" side of the referendum, encouraging students to support the daycare centre (no one signed up to represent the "no" side). That campaign will be led by VP Student Issues Neva Bassingthwaite and Gender Issues Centre Director Emily Lauzon. They say the issue is in line with LUSU's mandate to remove barriers to post-secondary education - not unlike the Feb. 1 tuition fee protests that the union organizes.
"Students generally do not like to see their fees rise," Lauzon explains, "but I think students understand the benefit of breaking down barriers to education. LUSU envisions a future with a vibrant student parent community, whose members feel supported, included and able to achieve their potential. This referendum helps make that a possibility."
One anonymous former student parent puts it this way: "It's five dollars, once a year. You have one fewer beer, and it's essentially paid for."
The student explained his experience with Nanabijou. While attending Lakehead several years ago, he had tried to enrol his daughter at the centre. "Unfortunately, we found out that the wait list was ridiculously long, and that by the time she would actually be enrolled, we would likely not be at the university anymore."
The issues faced by student parents can be invisible for the majority of the student population. "While my daughter was attending a daycare [off-site, twenty minutes away from LU], she couldn't be there any earlier than 8 am," the student said. "When you have an 8:30 am class, if you're running even slightly behind, and you're depending on public transit to get you from home to the daycare, and then from the daycare to school, you are going to be late for that class. When daycare centres close at five, and you have an evening class or a meeting with people for a group project, then you're going to miss that class unless you can find someone willing to babysit every single week."
Bassingthwaite and Lauzon acknowledge that the issue is one many students may not immediately connect with, but they both believe that if the referendum passes it will benefit students at Lakehead for years to come.
-reprinted from the Argus