Not long after assistant professor of education Karen Mundy found out she was pregnant, she did what any smart faculty member would do: she registered her fetus on the waiting list for every day-care center within driving distance of Stanford.
But when little Konstantin arrived last September, nothing was available. For four months, Mundy's in-laws moved into the family's 1,000-square-foot home to care for the baby. Then Mundy and her husband hired a graduate student to do at-home day care. The $1,600-a-month bill consumes a large chunk of the couple's income, but it's still less than most nannies charge. "The bottom line is it's not affordable," Mundy says. "If my income was our only income, we wouldn't be here."
Stanford has been hit in recent years by a housing shortage so acute that it has been difficult for the University to recruit some graduate students and faculty. Now, the dearth of affordable day care has emerged as another thorny recruiting issue. Anne Fernald, vice provost for faculty development, told the Faculty Senate at a meeting in April that one prospect actually demanded a guaranteed day-care spot as a condition of employment.
In a survey of faculty conducted by Fernald and the University's WorkLife Center, almost half of the 605 respondents said they currently use or would soon need child care. That could exacerbate an already dismal situation. As of now, 350 children -- 70 of them faculty kids -- are on waiting lists for campus day care. And even those parents lucky enough to find a spot for their child have a difficult time paying. It can cost up to $25,000 annually to keep two children in on-campus child care full time.
Administrators acknowledge the problem. At the Faculty Senate's final meeting in June, Provost Condoleezza Rice announced that the University has hired a consultant to help find solutions. The most widely discussed possibilities are building new day-care centers, expanding the existing ones and providing subsidies to parents. Also, starting in the fall, Stanford will offer emergency help to faculty and staff when their regular child-care plans fall through.
"If there is one group of issues that could provoke the decline in the quality of the scholarship and the educational offerings of this university, it is the erosion of our ability to appoint and retain excellent faculty," says Ward Watt, a professor of biological sciences. The issue, he says, should be addressed, "not soon, but now."
Mundy argues that such fixes would allow faculty to work more, be more productive, and be happier. But for now, she says, many young professors view a second child as a luxury. "Two children looks pretty difficult. If I can hardly afford 40 hours a week, what would I have to do to afford . . . two children?" she wonders. "It's astronomical."
