University to build campus day care for community

Working or attending class full time will be made a little easier for parents in the University community with the construction of a new day care center on campus.

"We have identified a site on the University Park campus along East College Avenue for a new day care," University President Graham Spanier announced at the University's Board of Trustees meeting Friday.

The day care center will accommodate 142 children and will build on the site of some "temporary" graduate housing constructed in the 1940s, Spanier said. The building will also house research facilities to be used by students from the College of Health and Human Development, he added.

Some of the trustees applauded the announcement, saying it was overdue and necessary.

"It is not long ago . . . that the administration saw no need (for new day care)," said Trustee Emeritus Helen Wise.

No students will be displaced from the graduate housing that will be removed for the project, Spanier said. The University will simply not assign anyone to that housing.

Trustee Emeritus Marian U. Coppersmith Fredman said the new facility will be invaluable to single mothers. But she said this facility is only the first step.

"Our problem is far from solved," she said.

The University plans to build more on-campus day care facilities, but these plans will not be implemented until the demand for new facilities can be assessed, Spanier said.

Before building another day care center, the administration will first see if the new center and the recently constructed center at the Penn State Research Park will fill to capacity.

Spanier also noted that the University is not the only child-care provider in the area.