UNC community works to support child care needs in wake of inactive committee

The conversation about child care on campus has lulled over the past few years and the group responsible for keeping the discussion alive — the Chancellor’s Child Care Advisory Committee — seems to have dissipated. 

The urgency to improve child care is increasing since, for many, the workplace, school and home are all under one roof due to COVID-19. Because of this, there is a push to renew an official group to focus on caregiving on campus and fill the CCAC void. 

“I think in some ways it’s probably just been put off rather than really addressed,” Chairperson of the Faculty Mimi Chapman said. “And the pandemic has said, ‘We can’t do that anymore.’”

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ron Strauss tasked Chapman with forming an informal group to make suggestions about caregiving challenges and opportunities on campus. 

In September, Chapman asked the working group members to examine how best to provide immediate relief for parents, which then expanded to addressing both short-term and long-term approaches. In a proposal to Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Provost Bob Blouin, the working group, composed of faculty, staff and graduate students, made two recommendations. 

The first recommendation is to reestablish an official standing structure to examine and systematically address caregiving on campus. 

Reviving a group to focus on caregiving could come in three different forms, Chapman said, including reconvening the CCAC, the formation of a new committee through faculty governance or handing over caregiving advisory responsibilities to the Faculty Welfare Committee. 

The specifics of that group, including its membership and charge, are still being finalized according to UNC Media Relations.

The second recommendation is to expand the Juggle caregiving app to UNC’s general campus to immediately support child care needs. 

The group requested subsidies to offset some of the costs of caregiving demands to help make the child care services more affordable. With the app, parents can post jobs, like babysitting and tutoring, and be matched with an appropriate person in the area. UNC Health has already subsidized the use of the app, Chapman said. 

“There isn’t a one size fits all in terms of what is needed during the pandemic, but I think it has exposed that we need to do more as a University,” Chapman said. “Child care in the pandemic has become a very pressing situation. It was already a pressing situation.” 

What happened to the Chancellor’s Child Care Advisory Committee? 

The CCAC was established in 1988 by Chancellor Paul Hardin to “develop initiatives for improving the quality of child care programs for faculty, students and staff,” Media Relations said. 

In 2009, it became a chancellor-appointed committee and its charge was revised “to study and evaluate alternatives for improving and strengthening child/family services for UNC faculty, staff and students, to make recommendations to the Chancellor for future goals for programs and services and to assist the Office of Human Resources Benefits and Work/Life Programs Department in implementing new programs and services," according to Media Relations. 

The CCAC should have provided an annual report to the Chancellor at the close of each academic year but, according to Media Relations, the last meeting agenda on file is from May 2013. 

Although the CCAC is inactive, conversations surrounding child care are prevalent on campus. 

During its last meeting, the Faculty Welfare Committee discussed child care options for UNC employees and how current services can be improved, especially within the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Members mentioned the efforts to reinstate the CCAC.

In the most recent Faculty Executive Committee meeting, Meg Zomorodi, working group member, assistant provost for inter-professional education and practice and a UNC School of Nursing professor, said she noticed that the CCAC appears to be inactive. 

“We don’t know what happened to it,” Zomorodi said.  

But the working group has a team of people trying to figure it out. 

“In terms of why it kind of fizzled out, or sort of what happened to it, why it’s no longer active — that’s not clear to me,” Shannelle Campbell, working group member and UNC School of Medicine assistant professor, said. “When the pandemic hit and everything shut down, it was clear that people needed help figuring out what to do. It seems like the right time to restart that committee.” 

Chapman said she does not know why the CCAC became defunct.

“The Chancellor’s Child Care Advisory Committee (CCAC) is no longer active,” Media Relations confirmed. “We’re unable to find when it became inactive.”

@_AnneTate_

university@dailytarheel.com