The Nittany Area Families for Children, a group of parents dedicated to addressing the need for quality childcare in State College, met yesterday to develop a plan to bring awareness to Penn State about the importance of childcare on campus.

The group met at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 208 W. Foster Ave., to brainstorm a list of plausible ideas that will help address the developing problem of a lack of childcare on campus because of Penn State's decision to close the Child Development Laboratory (CDL) in 2006.

One idea was to place advertisements in local newspapers throughout the week of April 10 in honor of the "Week of the Young Child," a national event celebrating the appreciation of childcare providers. "We could run a series of ads with slightly different messages," said Lee Ann Banaszak, associate professor of political science and women's studies. "They can be in a 'Did you know?' format about the CDL."

Another idea the group came up with was to create a petition that would be mass-distributed via e-mail and eventually sent to Penn State President Graham Spanier and Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson.

"The central focus [of the petition] will be the need for Penn State to maintain high-quality, affordable care," Banaszak said. "The CDL provides all this, so why is it closing?"

The parents also developed an idea in which parents and concerned individuals will sport stickers reading, "I care about quality childcare, does Penn State?" during the week of April 10.

"We're upset that the biggest need was quality, affordability and accessibility, and Penn State is closing down a center that met all those needs and more," said Anne Stokes, a research support assistant for the College of Health and Human Development.

The last item the group discussed was getting their concerns discussed at the next University Faculty Senate meeting. "We want to update them on the needs assessment and find out new information from the transition committee," Banaszak said.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said he feels the plans for demolishing the CDL will go through as scheduled. "Penn State is pretty sure it's on the right course with its childcare facilities," he said.

He added that there may be plans for a childcare facility somewhere on West Campus in the future.

"I believe that's a possibility but there are no formal plans yet," he said.