The NDSU childcare coordinating committee is scheduled to host an open forum May 5 at 9 a.m. in the Memorial Union Century Theater to gather input from the campus community regarding a campus childcare solution. The current Center for Child Development will remain open until July 2012

President Dean L. Bresciani charged the group to present campus childcare options to university administrators. The potential solutions identified by the committee will include business plans developed by NDSU MBA students under the direction of Karen Froelich, associate professor of management, and Paul Brown, senior lecturer in management.

The committee will host several open forums and conduct interviews with internal and external stakeholders including staff, faculty and NDSU Child Care Center personnel.

Canan Bilen-Green, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering and FORWARD director, says the availability of child care has been a concern and commitment of the FORWARD project from its inception. “FORWARD’s offer to provide leadership in addressing this need reflects the importance of available, quality child care to the achievement of the FORWARD goals. Emerging evidence also suggests the center serves an important academic, research and outreach mission for both the campus and surrounding community.”

Members of the coordinating committee are chair Kevin McCaul, science and mathematics; Joshua Boschee, career specialist; Karen Froelich, management; Kendra Greenlee, biological sciences; Gary Liguori, health, nutrition and exercise science; and Wendy Reed, biological sciences, and Bilen-Green. Greenlee, Liguori, McCaul and Reed either have or have had children in the center.