Construction Will Boost Campus Child Care Center 's Capacity

Duke Children's Campus, the university's on-campus child care center and preschool, will begin construction in April on a project to double the center's capacity for children of faculty, staff and graduate and professional students.

The 6,900-square-foot, $1.4 million expansion is slated for completion by the beginning of the 2003-04 academic year. The project will increase the capacity of the center to 153 children, with a majority of those 77 new spaces designated for infants and toddlers.

The project stems from work by the Women's Steering Committee, a 15-member task force formed last spring as part of President Nannerl O. Keohane's university-wide gender initiative. Since then, the committee has been researching several issues pertaining to women, including child care.

"This project will help extend the benefits of this top-rated child care facility to more parents at Duke, including some of our graduate and professional students," Keohane said. "The expansion of the Duke Children's Campus will help us meet the growing need for affordable, quality child care, and it represents an important step in our efforts to address women's issues at Duke."

Half of the 76 current spaces are reserved for preschoolers (ages 3 to 5) and another 24 spaces are filled by 2-year-olds. Four spaces are currently reserved for infants; 10 for toddlers (ages 1 to 2). A waiting list has developed for all age groups, with more than two-thirds of those parents awaiting spaces in the infant and toddler programs.

The expansion will permit Duke Children's Campus to enroll an additional 24 infants and 15 more toddlers. Six spaces will be added to the twos program and 32 to the preschool program.

A key component of the expansion will be the additional space allotted for children of graduate and professional students, said Jacqueline Looney, associate dean for the Graduate School and a member of the Women's Steering Committee.

"We understand that graduate and professional students who are parents face unique challenges inside and outside the classroom," she said. "We believe that offering on-campus day care will help."

As part of the project, Duke Children's Campus will also expand its enrollment options to include part-time care, including half day and partial week (two-day, three-day and four-day) options, said Tallman Trask III, executive vice president at Duke. Currently, enrollment is limited to full-time care for five days a week.

"Child care needs vary widely depending on work schedules and family circumstances," Trask said. "Providing greater flexibility for enrollment will help more parents at Duke take advantage of this center."

The Duke Children's Campus, located on Alexander Street at Campus Drive, opened in 1991. The operation moved to the YMCA in downtown Durham in 1997 before returning to the renovated campus site in August 2001.

The facility is managed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which provides work-site child care for more than 200 U.S. companies, including SAS, GlaxoSmithKline and IBM in the Triangle.

For more information or to enroll a child, contact Duke Children's Campus by telephone at (919) 684-8644 or by fax at (919) 684-8838. The center's e-mail is <duke@brighthorizons.com>.