SOUTHEAST AIRS DAY-CARE ISSUE

Providing an on-campus day-care service for students at Southeast Missouri State University will take the cooperation of students, the university and private business to become a reality.

At an informal meeting Thursday to discuss the issue, Dean of Students Tom Lovett said the university would most likely act as a mediator between private businesses and students in an attempt to provide the service instead of establishing a university-owned facility.

Lovett said the university would consider establishing its own center only if private day-care centers were not interested in providing the type of service needed by students, such as night-time care and drop-in service at a reasonable cost.

The meeting, organized by Student Government, drew about 40 people, most of them parents who are students at the university. Many of them brought their children.

Some owners of local day-care centers also attended the meeting.

Several of the students said they need the type of day care private centers either could not provide or could provide only at a cost that is out of their reach.

"They're too expensive for us," said Patrick Moore, a freshman, "They can't provide drop-in service when we need it, and you're not going to find night day care."

Another student, who identified herself only as Nancy, said she's dropped out of the university three times because she couldn't find adequate and affordable day care for her children.

One student said day care "needs to be on campus or close to it and it needs to be extremely flexible or it's not going to work."

Moore, who brought his young son with him, said, "I've gone through three centers and in each one I've had to meet the day-care center's needs."

It is estimated that 25-28 percent of Southeast students are non-traditional, and that half of them have children, Lovett said.

"We've got a campus in evolution," he said. "It would be a mistake to say that Southeast does not want to meet the needs of its students, but it's not easy to balance the needs of the university with the needs of the students."

He said the university does not want to "get into the child-care business" and it doesn't want to compete with day-care centers.

Pam McCarron, president of the Non-Traditional Student Association, said she agreed with Lovett but that the university should "care about its students.

"And providing day care is part of that caring," said McCarron.

Kaye Clemens, who owns Cinnamon Bear & Company Preschool and Child Care Center, told students she is willing to work with them to provide night and drop-in care, which her center does not offer. She said more than 40 percent of the children in her center are those of Southeast students or employees.

"We understand and are hearing the need," she said. "But we need to hear from groups. I need to know how many children I would have on a given night before I can put a program into place. I've got to know some numbers."

Michelle Dewrock, owner of A Step At A Time, said the only way her center and other centers could afford night-time and drop-in care is if they knew they would have enough children stay at their centers on a regular basis to pay for the added cost.

State regulations for licensed day- care facilities dictate that centers open during evening and night hours provide hot meals, bathtub and shower facilities, cots and extra workers.

No licensed Cape Girardeau center currently offers night-time care, Dewrock and Clemens said.

At least six of Missouri's four-year public colleges and universities provide on-campus day care, including Central Missouri State, Northeast Missouri State, Missouri Western, Missouri Southern and the University of Missouri campuses at Kansas City and St. Louis.

Student Government President K.C. Martin said his organization will establish a committee to further study campus day care. The committee would be made up of student representatives, university officials and representatives from local day-care centers, he said.

Clemens, who volunteered for the committee, said: "What's going to be discovered is there's going to be a lot of cost involved. Who's going to pay for it?"