Members of Penn State Pro-Choice, a campus group awaiting official registration, are circulating a petition demanding that a director be instated for the future Office of Child Care Service and that a Child Care Committee be formed before University President Bryce Jordan retires in August.

Both demands are based on recommendations made by the Child Care Task Force. Jordan appointed the task force in December 1988 to assess and compare the University's child care needs with other universities.

Charles Super, task force chairman, said he expects the committee and office on child care to be in place by the end of Jordan's term.

Because the group has not gained official status, members have been distributing the petition on their own. Elise Constantine, Penn State Pro-Choice co-director, and Ken Martin, Graduate Student Association president, drafted the petition.

The petition also demands that the committee reflect the diverse needs of students.

"If a lot of people express interest, it will let the University know that the issue is still important to us," Martin said, stating the need to keep the child-care issue visible.

Because students do not have eight-to-five schedules, on-campus child care needs to be flexible, Martin said.

Super agreed that University child care needs to be flexible and suggested parental staffing as a way to keep child care costs down and hours flexible.

Characterizing the University's inaction as discriminatory, Constantine said the current state of on-campus child care leaves full-time women students with two options -- having an abortion and remaining in school or having a child and dropping out.

"They should have the choice to not just terminate or continue a pregnancy but to be a parent and a student," she said.

Laura Woods, treasurer for the Returning Adult Students Organization, said when she enrolled four years ago, a four-year waiting list existed for on-campus day care and University faculty and staff received first priority.

Woods said she does not expect the University to implement an improved day care program in the near future.

"President Jordan has a lot of other concerns. I really doubt anything will be done before August," she said.

William Asbury, vice president of student services, said he and three other administrators have just completed drafting a description of the director's position.

"I would anticipate that the office would be in place this (spring) semester," Asbury said.

The greatest challenge is creating an office that answers directly to the University president and not part of either student services or faculty and staff programming, Super said.

The petition will be sent to Jordan and Asbury in two or three weeks, while a second petition demanding increased women's health care will be written before next week and sent at the same time to the Student Advisory Board and to Ritenour Health Center, Constantine said.

Constantine said much improvement is also needed for on-campus women's health care.

Currently, three nurse practitioners and one physician specialize in obstetrics and gynecology at Ritenour for all women undergraduate and graduate students, Constantine said.

She added that the next available initial contraceptive appointment is the second week of March.

Child care and women's health are problems that pro-life and pro- choice advocates can work on together instead of concentrating on their differences over one issue, Constantine said.