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First appeared March 7, 2002
Budget cuts are a new reality for the University of Maine. Each department and program is seeing a reduction in their yearly budgets.
One program, however, is feeling a much harsher blow.
The UMaine Children’s Center receives about one third of its overall funding from the university. This comes to $234,165 a year of the center’s total budget of $718,094. For the upcoming school year, however, the university is proposing to cut 50 percent of the center’s funding, thus removing 17 percent of the total budget.
At the Faculty Senate meeting held Wednesday, Feb. 27, a motion passed 29-8-10 to ensure that any cuts the university made to the center’s budget would not be more than the average cut, on a percentage basis, of the other programs on campus.
Several members of Faculty Senate spoke in favor of the motion to halt the budget cuts. Judy Kuhns-Hastings, chair of the University Environment Committee said that since the need for child-care is increasing in the state of Maine, Maine’s flagship campus should follow suit in providing that service.
Gary Quimby, the Children’s Center director, explained that fees for parents would increase dramatically in order to accommodate the proposed budget cut. He said that the center’s budget is dependent upon 100 percent capacity. Increased fees would drive parents away, and the “budget would unravel like a ball of yarn.”
“[I would] give 20 percent of my salary to keep our level of quality at this flagship campus,” he said.
Dr. Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, an associate professor of clinical nutrition, described the center as a magnet for faculty.
“[It's a] great tool for attracting new faculty,” she said.
Some did offer opposition to the motion. Student Government President Pearce Paul Creasman spoke against the motion, saying that extra tuition doesn’t justify supporting the Children’s Center.
The center currently has three primary sources of funding: the Maine Department of Human Services, which grants funding for low income parents; parents who pay for the child-care service and the university. Peggy Kennedy, the administrative associate for the center, said that if the parents’ fees are raised, they will be so high that people can’t or won’t pay. Parents already pay between $95 and $115 per week.
According to Kennedy, cutting back funding for the center will force many low income students that use the center for child-care to drop out of school in order to be able to afford child-care.
“This cut will affect students who need the care for children,” Kennedy said. “In the long run, [the cuts] will do one thing, close us down.”
The center was originally formed by a coalition of students in 1974 and has since grown from caring for 20 children each day then to 79 children today. About 35 work-study students are employed at the center each semester and it is used as a training site for students in nursing, psychology and several other programs.
“The hardest thing in all of this is that the infant and toddler care we provide is not anywhere else in this community,” Kennedy said. “Basically what we do here is for the children. People need to remember that.”
