MEETING WILL ESTABLISH CAMPUS DAY-CARE NEEDS

An interesting meeting will be held at Southeast Missouri State University tonight, one that reflects a change taking place in the makeup of higher education institutions. Propelled by so-called non-traditional students, a movement is afoot to establish a child day-care facility on campus. There are merits in the concept and possible flaws in how it might be applied; tonight's meeting, however, should go some distance toward weighing the interest in such an endeavor.

Some facts regarding this issue are inarguable. The composition of university enrollments is changing nationwide; far more non-traditional students (those 25 or older, away from schooling for a time, and so on) are being found on campus. At Southeast, 25 percent of the enrollment is made up of these students, with the likelihood of it climbing to 40 percent by 1995. In addition, societal and economic changes have altered the pattern of college students being primarily those young people fresh from high school; as the average age of college students rises, so does the prospect that these "new" students are parents themselves.

As universities see this shift in demographic composition, they are beginning to address problems that are mostly new to the campus setting. One can see a number of possibilities in putting together a day-care service on campus: an affordable facility could be established and staffed in part by student workers. The cost of the service would be reasonable and perhaps supplemented by student fees; children would be close at hand for the students and the hours would be as flexible as those cooperating in the project want to make them. Faculty and staff members could also make use of the facility. According to promoters of such a plan, six other public universities in Missouri operate on-campus, day-care facilities.

On the down side of this argument is the inclination, seen too often, of public entities to tread on the turf of private enterprise. There are a number of day-care facilities in the Cape Girardeau area that offer excellent, flexible service, provide jobs and pay taxes. We aren't enthused by the idea of a tax-supported university cutting into the income of tax-paying businesses. Perhaps the university could contract with one or more of the local private day-care centers for the services, as opposed to setting up its own service. The ideas of representatives of these private day-care centers would be welcome at tonight's meeting.

Southeast Missouri State would like to remove as many obstacles as possible for non-traditional students. It should not do so on the backs of all taxpayers or those businesses that provide day-care services for profit. Where there is a need, there should be some way to accommodate it. The meeting tonight should help determine what the need is; those interested should make their feelings known.