Dear Campus Community,
Providing affordable, stable, and robust child care is critical for our campus community. In order to focus on our work—whether studying, teaching, research, or the business of UC Santa Cruz—we must feel confident that our children are in a good environment with people who will support their development and education.
After hearing from critical stakeholders in our campus community, I write to share my decision to have UC Santa Cruz continue providing in-house childcare services once the new center is built. An outside provider will not operate Early Education Services at the new facility when it opens.
Enhancing and expanding our childcare service remains a top priority. The listening sessions in spring and fall 2021 provided us all with an opportunity to hear from critical stakeholders, including the parents served by EES and the EES staff. I heard a strong preference to continue providing early childhood education in-house and support for the new program and curriculum that we’ve been developing.
We are still planning to expand Early Education Services so that we can offer faculty and staff child-care support that is currently available only to students with children. Student Housing West, which is being held up by lawsuits, will eventually enable UC Santa Cruz to build a new childcare facility next to the intersection of Hagar and Coolidge drives. This facility will have the space to serve 140 children, ranging from infants to school age. We anticipate hiring additional staff to support the program’s expansion once construction is well underway on the new facility.
To provide additional support to families, UC Santa Cruz will continue providing subsidized back-up care for employees and students through a contract with Bright Horizons. This includes both in-home care and care at one of the child-care centers that will be in a care network now being assembled.
I appreciate our community’s commitment to our Early Education Services program and its valuable perspective on ensuring we have a program that is best for our campus and—most importantly—the children it serves.
Sincerely,
Cindy
Cynthia Larive
Chancellor
