Monday night, in a meeting between parents and administration in the College of Health and Human Development, participants discussed the closing of the Child Development Laboratory (CDL).

The parents, mostly professors and graduate students, say that closing a childcare facility on campus is wrong, as there are only two that exist.

All of the individuals present stressed the need for quality childcare on campus, but also talked about the lack of space available.

Closing a facility will not be the answer to deal with the lack of spaces available -- currently there are 600 children on a waiting list.

The last thing the College of Health and Human Development should be doing is closing a facility when there are 600 children on a waiting list.

All of this controversy came to light because of construction on the South Henderson Building, where the CDL is located.

The South Henderson Building is slated to become more classroom and office space, rather than childcare -- and the building won't even be demolished until fall of 2006.

While the problem of the CDL's closing may not be an immediate problem, and deserves some discussion between faculty and staff to determine childcare needs, the waiting list of 600 children does not. The university needs to meet the demand for childcare on campus.

If faculty members who are parents need childcare, and cannot get it, Penn State may be losing fabulous professors, graduate students and others, all because it cannot provide a simple service to its staff.

The College of Health and Human Development has maintained extremely well-accredited childcare facilities.

This in itself is commendable, and parents should be concerned with the quality of childcare.

But how can a facility boast of accreditation when there are too many kids waiting to get in?

The college and the parents need to come to an agreement that more childcare on campus is needed. Some possible solutions for this could be to use more of the students from the Health and Human Development college. Yes, there may be students who already do this.

Take advantage of the resources on campus.

Sometimes the best solutions can occur through looking at what's there.

Using students as babysitters might sound obvious, but if they are training in this area, why not give more of them some real world experience?