An ad-hoc committee studying child care options at NDSU has provided NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani with a set of recommendations and business plans that allow the existing child care center to remain open in a cost effective manner.

After meeting on Oct. 6 with members of the committee, Bresciani said he appreciated the extensive analysis the group had undertaken.  After later review and consensus agreement from the president’s cabinet, NDSU has accepted both short- and long-term recommendations as a future action plan.

“I was pleased to learn more about the ways in which the center is critical to various aspects of our academic teaching and research mission, and I have always recognized that it provides a co-curricular and high-quality service that is extremely important to our faculty, staff and students,” Bresciani said.

The committee’s short term recommendations are:

• Because of the academic purposes of the center, for NDSU to fund 20 percent, or approximately $100,000, in operating costs.
• Retain the center in its current location in Evelyn Morrow Lebedeff Hall.
• Move administration of the center out of the College of Human Development and Education.
• Charge the director of the center with responsibility for the financial health and operation of the center.

The committee’s long-term recommendation is for the president to appoint a task force to identify more permanent solutions.  Members of the president’s cabinet agreed to locate the center in human resources, a unit of the Division of Finance andAdministration.

The committee affirmed the critical need for quality child care in the local community. Kevin McCaul, committee chair and dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, said the committee’s research showed that the community demand for child care far eclipses what is available.  “We also realized that offering additional care for children of different ages, if sized purposefully, can in the long run be more cost effective,” he said.  

The committee spent nearly six months gathering data, interviewing NDSU Child Care Centerstaff, faculty and administrators involved in center administration, community child care providers, and national representatives who provide child care. The committee received a financial analysis from Child Care Resource and Referral and additional analysis from graduate students in the College of Business working under the supervision of MBA Program Coordinator Karen Froelich. 

Committee members are Canan Bilen-Green, Froelich, Kendra Greenlee, Gary Liguori, McCaul and Wendy Reed.