SURVEY SHOWS NEED FOR SEMO DAY CARE

A survey of non-traditional students at Southeast Missouri State University points to a need for day care for students' children, particularly during evening hours, the president of Student Government said Monday.

The results of the survey, taken this summer by a Student Government task force, were announced by Student Government President K.C. Martin.

He said the task force wants "to prove to the university that there is a definite interest, definite need, and something needs to be done."

The nine-question survey was mailed to 2,500 non-traditional students, said Martin, who is heading up the task force.

A total of 732 survey forms were returned by early August, but only 432 could be tabulated. Some people had written answers on the survey forms, which could not be counted in the computer tabulations, Martin explained.

Some of those submitting valid responses didn't answer every question, he said.

More than 35 percent of students responding to the survey said they had one child; and 34 percent said they had two children.

Over 71 percent of respondents said they had children in the infant-to-2-years-of-age category.

Nearly 35 percent of respondents said they had children in day care while they attended university classes. Another 33.3 percent had home care or babysitters; 20.1 percent had their children cared for at relatives' houses; and the remainder had "other care" that was not specified.

Almost half of respondents (45.6 percent) said they paid up to $50 a week for day care for their children. Another 13.2 percent said they paid $50-$75 a week for child care.

More than half expressed interest in having a pilot program at the university this fall for care of children during evening hours.

In the survey, 12.7 percent said they would most definitely use it; 17.1 percent said they would probably use it; 24.1 percent said they would at least be interested in looking at it; and 17.8 percent said they would not use such a service. Twenty-eight percent of those persons returning survey forms did not answer the question.

Nearly half of respondents said that they would make use of a campus day-care facility that involved an internship program where students would care for the children.

Of those responding, 40.7 percent said they would use such a facility with confidence; 16.9 percent said they would use the facility with reservations; and 9.5 percent said they wouldn't use the facility. More than 32 percent of those responding to the survey did not answer the question.

Martin said Monday that he had hoped more students would have responded to the survey. "These responses are pretty much what we are going to base any justification for starting up a child-care program on, so I would have hoped we would have had a better response."

But Martin said the survey results still show a need for some type of university day-care program. "If something was made available to them (the students), they would more than likely use it," he said.

Martin said the task force plans to use the survey results to draw up recommendations that will be made to Student Senate.

One idea being considered, said Martin, is a voucher system "where we would purchase a set amount of time from one or several child-care centers in town" and then offer that service at a discounted cost to students.

By bidding such a service, Martin said, a lower price might be obtained than could be secured by individual students.

Martin said any initial day-care program on campus would have to be funded through Student Government and student-fee funds.

"Initially, in order to start up anything, it will have to come from Student Government," said Martin. "That's obvious, with the budget problems the university has right now."

Martin said that if Proposition B, the tax-and-reform package for education, is approved by voters in November, additional revenue would be available for "mission enhancement" at Missouri's public colleges and universities.

He said the task force might recommend that the university include day care among its priorities for funding.

One possibility, he said, is to expand the university's child-development program to provide evening care for children. It's estimated such a program could be provided at a cost of $10,000 to $30,000, Martin said.