The Eastern Child Care Committee is currently performing a survey to decide if Eastern should provide a child care service on campus.

Debra Loveless, a professor within the geology-geography department, has two children ages five and seven. When asked about the possibility of a child care facility on campus, she was intrigued. Having used other daycare providers in the past, she knew very well the set backs of using them.

Loveless said childcare cost her around $400 a month, which for anyone on a budget is no small cost. She said at one point it took her about six months to get both of her children into the same program.

“If they took school-age kids and made it a bus stop it would work,” Loveless said.

Mikki Meadows, a family and consumer sciences professor, coordinates the infant and child development laboratories at Eastern.

“I believe that EIU could offer child care and directly compete with local facilities if the university is willing to subsidize care, however if the students and faculty that would use an EIU child care center have to self pay then they are not receiving a benefit that cannot be easily found within the community,” Meadows said.

She said that the professors in the school of Family and Consumer Sciences have not been included in the discussion of a child care facility as of yet, and that it is disappointing.

Noah Hardy, a sophomore undecided major, said he feels that a child care program would help out a lot of the student-parents who can barely afford schooling for themselves, let alone day care for their children.

“My sister Jessica was studying at ECPI College of Technology to become a nurse, but life got in her way,” Hardy said. “She had too much on her mind that came first, mostly my nephew. I can’t say that a free facility would have kept her going there, but it definitely would have helped.”

Although the specifics of the child care service are unknown, there are other child care facilities near campus.

The Immanuel Lutheran Church offers a program from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and accepts children 2-8 years old. Other programs exist as well, such the Charleston Community Daycare Center.

Zachary White can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].