| Calvin backpedals on daycare plan
By Laura Peterson
Staff Writer
Calvin’s Planning and Priorities Committee has come to a decision regarding the debate over whether or not Calvin should subsidize Rainbow Child Development Center, offering Rainbow’s services at a discounted rate to Calvin faculty. The committee has decided against an agreement with Rainbow for two reasons: Rainbow’s non-Christian atmosphere and its distance from campus.
President Byker issued a statement in December that said: “While Rainbow would have met some of the needs that have been expressed, the fact that it is not a Christian daycare facility, and would not serve all the faculty and staff needing services, led to its defeat.”
Over the past few months, the Planning and Priorities Committee (PPC) has been gathering feedback from faculty and researching options, seeking to make a daycare service available to parents on faculty at Calvin. Rainbow Child Development Center was taken into consideration as an option. Because Rainbow is not a Christian establishment, and Calvin professors are required to send their older children to Christian elementary and secondary schools, controversy arose. Some people expressed opinions that Calvin’s subsidizing of Rainbow would be a contradiction of policy.
The PPC decided against Rainbow mainly because of the issue of policy conflict. In addition, Rainbow is not within easy walking distance of the campus. Calvin would like to find a daycare service with convenient enough access that professors, especially nursing mothers, would be able to see their children between classes.
Joel Carpenter, Calvin’s Provost and a member of the PPC, said that there is still a question as to whether it is possible for Calvin to offer one option that would satisfy the needs of every faculty member. “It would be unfortunate,” said Carpenter, “to offer one option and only benefit a minority of the community. It’s hard to have a one-size-fits-all option for family daycare needs.”
Choosing a daycare is a very personal decision for each family, and it is questionable whether a college can make a decision to partner a daycare center that will be sufficient to meet the needs of the Calvin community.
This effort to find a daycare service is part of a larger set of initiatives that have been set in motion with the intention of making Calvin a good, family-friendly place to work, said Carpenter.
Committees such as the PPC have concerned themselves recently with the needs of young families and female faculty in particular. A few topics under discussion have been shared spousal appointments, in which professors would share a position and so have fewer hours required of them, and also a reduced workload for faculty members with young families. Tenure plans would also be altered; possibly tenure processes would be delayed in order to allow faculty members to spend necessary time with family.
Carpenter commented on one downfall of the plan to offer daycare to Calvin faculty. Because of the rising cost of child care, a benefit such as this would be a sizable offer, an offer not available to single faculty members or those without children. Although this topic has not yet come under heavy discussion, the PPC does not wish to shortchange Calvin faculty who have no need of daycare services. Carpenter hopes that it will not come down to forcing Calvin employees to make a decision between the daycare benefit and other benefits, such as health insurance.
The PPC is beginning to explore the possibility of a relationship with Church of the Servant, since Rainbow is no longer an option. A committee at Church of the Servant is discussing the addition of an educational wing to their facility. It is possible that Calvin would help finance the building project and then use the church facility for daycare. Nothing official has yet been decided, but the option is favorable because of the church’s close location, and its Christian mission, which Calvin shares.
Calvin English Prof. Debra Rienstra said, “I think it was the right decision [not to subsidize Rainbow].” Rienstra has young children and is glad to see that the PPC is “making steps in the right direction.” She would be happy to send her children to a daycare service at Church of the Servant, if that is the committee’s final decision; however, it is a theoretical situation for her, since her children will be old enough to go to school by the time the agreement is finalized. “It will take time to get a great daycare system figured out,” said Rienstra.
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