Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1987)
Child care programs inadaquate; facility expansion needed By Kara Story Of th* Imvrtld As th« University's popula tion ages, there is an increasing problem among students and faculty who have children The problem rests in the fact that there simply is not enough space for all children needing supervision. In the past, it was considered a radical idea that campus ad ministration would even con sider addressing the problem of child care, according to Dennis Reynolds. Direr tor of the University’s Child Care Center. But Reynolds said there is in creasing pressure on ad ministration as a result of what he calls "the second wave of the women s movement " As more women today decide to enter the work force, as well as have children, the need for child care services increases The services offered on this campus are "grossly inade quate." said Dan Williams. Vice President of Administration. The administration is organizing a task force to ad dress the child care needs of parents on the faculty and staff, and another task force headed by the ASUO is looking into stu dent options Hill Shank and Nora Cowen are the administration's Child Care Study Committee co chairs Shank said there are no available facilities on campus for faculty and staff The only space he knows of is in the Col lege of Education's Early Childhood Center, which is available for a small number of three to five-year-olds, and is only offered Monday through Thursday mornings "Not many organizations in the public sector provide day care and we ll try to see how other universities have done it and funded it." said Shank. The Committee plans to survey the faculty/staff com munity beginning in September and determine how many peo ple have children not in school and what their specific needs are. The next step would be to determine the needs by child's age. Younger kids need more staff. Shank said. Child care is not seen as pure ly a women's issue and the Committee will include both men and women, as well as dif ferent minority representatives, said Shank. "It's an important issue and the sooner we can get the report into the University, the sooner the University can consider it,” Shank said "The more we can indicate there is a real need out there, the stronger our recommenda tions will be." Shank directs letters and phone calls on this issue to either himself or Nora Cowen. Interested people can write Bill Shank. University Library. University of Oregon, or call t>86-30yti Nora Cowen can be reached through the College of Education, University of United Fashions Of Benetton & benetton Valley River Center • 342-4007 Oregon. 68f>-3405. The bulk of campus child care options for students are provid ed through six EMU ad ministered programs. The six programs each provide an average of 20 spaces for kids. That is not enough according to Reynolds, who said that 13 per cent of the student population has kids, and half of those kids are under age two. The EMU programs are limited to children aged two through six, and there are few programs available for school age children. Reynolds recom mends parents contact the Eugene Latchkey program for older children. Infants and toddlers must have a higher ratio of adult/child supervision and the EMU does not offer these ser vices because the ratio require ment makes it hard to break even financially without mak ing it too expensive for students to use. said Reynolds. Although there are not enough spaces on campus to meet all the child care needs, Reynolds has suggestions for those parents he must turn away But he still urges all parents to apply for space even if it is after the deadline because last year the program ended up with availability. He attributes that to the program's reputation as being impossible to get into. Turn to Child, Page 9A Greek system a tradition By Will Holbert CM Ik* Finer aid For many it's the ticket to life long friendships, to social adventure and to being part of an enduring collegiate tradition. "It's more than a bunch of big houses with funny letters on them,” said one fraternity president. It’s the (’.reek system. At the University it includes 11 sororities. 16 fraternities, and an estimated 15 percent of the student body. Becoming a member of the Greek system, joining a house, involves a com plex ritual known as rush Rush is a highly organized, week long membership drive design ed to match prospective members — "RUSHEES" — with a house fitting their per sonalities. values and interests. The houses decide which rushees match their various ideals in a system of mutual selection. Kush organizers form a com mittee called "rush central,” and at one point rushees fill out their house choices on scantron cards to be fed into a”rush com puter.” aiding in the mixing and matching. Rush week at the University falls between September 19 and 26. There will be a table for rush registration in the EMU Breezeway. Potential rushees must pay a fee, which is $35 for sorority rush, and $20 for frater nity rush. A process of elimination starts during rush week when the rushee pays a brief visit to each house This allows the ruslice to meet house members and form first impressions of each sorority or fraternity. Each rushee is asked to choose, "preference,’’ a number of houses they consider good pro spects. The rushees return to their preferenced houses for parties and another chance to narrow their selections Both rushes have four prefrencing stages. With 27 houses throwing a varied number of rush celebra tions in a week’s time, one im agines he or she has achieved party nirvana. But. the legen dary beer bashes are no more, at least not during rush. The local Greek system instituted a dry rush in 1983. banning alcohol from the rush ritual. Picking a house is a big deci sion, "Being under the in fluence of alcohol isn't going to facilitate that decision." said Steve Frichette, president of the SAE fraternity. Concerns behind image also caused the move to a dry rush “How do you explain to a rushees' parents, that. yeah, the house got him (drunk) and he tripped und broke his leg Do parents want him in the Greek system after that happens' said Chris Kunyard. rush chair man for the Interfraternity Council. At the end of rush week the rushees have narrowed their preferences to three houses. Rush organizers provide the houses with lists of the preferences, the houses then compare the lists with their own Turn to Greeks, Page 10A PEDAL POWER BICYCLES I 877 E. 13th St. EUGENE M-F 9-5:30 343-2488 Offer good through Oct. 15 OFF JAMI’S OUNTRY MTN. BIKE Best Value In Town! 389.00 BUY ANY BICYCLE, RECEIVE THIS ACC. PACKAGE 40% OFF Fenders 16.50 ^ 10.00 (Silver only) Citadel Lock 32.95 -> 25.00 Gen. Set. 14.50 > 12.00 $64.05 SAVE* 17 $47.00
