CSU gets green-light from the city to open the downtown daycare
The Concordia Student Union’s (CSU) daycare will be opening its doors in the fall of 2017. The project was supposed to be completed before the start of the 2017 winter semester, but the bureaucratic process delayed its opening, according to the CSU.
“We got the go-ahead from the city for construction last week,” said Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis, the CSU’s general coordinator.
“The registration form for the waiting list is also ready and will be sent out in the next CSU newsletter,” said Sophia Sahrane, the CSU academic and advocacy coordinator in charge of the project.
The project was proposed in 2011 after the Dean of Students office and the Concordia University Student Parents Centre conducted a study to determine whether undergraduate and graduate students needed a daycare. Although the study yielded a lot of positive results and got municipal approval, the initiative fell through.
In November 2014, the CSU asked students if they were in favour of a daycare that prioritizes student-parents. The result was an 87 per cent approval rate from students.
There is currently a daycare available at the Loyola campus, but only 25 per cent of the spaces are reserved for student-parents, according to Lisa Comerford, the executive director of the Concordia community CPE Les P’tits Profs daycare. The new daycare will be on Bishop Street, near the Sir George Williams (SGW) downtown campus, and available only to student-parents. The children of undergraduate students will have priority, but the CSU confirmed that some places will be allotted to graduate students’ children as well.
Marshall-Kiparissis spoke to The Concordian last September about the importance of having a daycare on campus. “Not only do these parents have a job, but they have a kid, classes to attend and homework to do,” she said.
The daycare will accept children under the age of five. The nursery will welcome infants under the age of 18 months. The daycare will employ a daycare and nursery manager, four educators, four educator helpers, one kitchen helper, a bookkeeper and an administrative assistant.
CSU is currently collaborating with the university and the Concordia Student Parents Centre (CUSP) to fund the project.
* This article has been updated for accuracy. The Concordian regrets the error.