Support on Child Care

Since she graduated college, Alexis Franzese has been attentive to stories about how women—especially women in academe—managed to advance their careers while raising children. Franzese is about to negotiate that balance for herself.

She and her husband, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are expecting their first child in October. Franzese is working toward two separate doctorates in sociology and clinical psychology. With five years of graduate school completed and at least two remaining, she knows she will take advantage of a Graduate School child care subsidy that helps doctoral students pay for high-quality child care.

"Knowing about the resources that were available from Duke and the support of the Graduate School gave us extra confidence in the decision we had made to start a family," Franzese said.

The child care benefit, which awards $200 to $5,000 annual grants based on financial need, was instituted in response to information gathered during the Women's Initiative. Since 2003 when the subsidy was first offered, Duke has helped fund child care for 105 doctoral students' children.

"We were motivated to address child care by the fact that it's a great need," said Jacqueline Looney, associate dean for graduate student affairs. "Life continues while you're a graduate student, and because there is a long time before you get the degree, people still grow their families."

Employee and faculty parents also have benefited from recent Duke's child care initiatives that came in the aftermath of the Women's Initiative. The university doubled the capacity of Duke Children's Campus, reserving 30 spots in the on-campus daycare facility for children of graduate students. The university also partnered with Durham's Child Care Services Association to improve area child care centers. Duke employee and student parents receive priority for vacant spaces at the 29 centers in the Duke Child Care Partnership.

The typical length of a Ph.D. program is four to six years, but some graduate students, regardless of whether or not they have children, stay as long as eight years. Looney said the Women's Initiative research sparked a greater awareness of the non-academic aspects of graduate students' lives. Many students come to Duke already having children and families

With the help of the Graduate School, graduate and professional students organized a Graduate Parents Network in 2003. Through a list serv and lunch meetings, parents swap information about their studies and raising their children. The group also hosts several large-scale events on campus to parents and children to meet each other.

Joonmo Son, a sociology doctoral student, praised the development of these programs, which were not in place when he came to Duke from Korea.

"It shows that the school and the student body care about the lives of grad parents. Its existence makes us feel comfortable on campus," said Son, co-president of the Graduate Parents Network.

The group has also made a difference to his two children, ages five and seven. "They feel that they are part of the Duke community even though they are kids," Son said. "Part of the reason is that they know what the campus is because they have come here."

Duke continues to look for ways to make its campus more family-friendly for graduate students. Looney, who served on the Women's Initiative Steering Committee, said the Graduate School is considering some form of parental leave policy for graduate students. "We don't have a date yet when it will be completed, but it's definitely a priority," she said.