The University reinforced the idea of the Cornell community as a “family” with the establishment of the Child Care Center, which provides a safe learning environment for children, toddlers and infants of Cornell University faculty, staff and students.

The Cornell Child Care Center on Pleasant Grove Road opened in late August of 2008 under the management of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which specializes in employer-sponsored child care. Founded by Linda Mason ’76, Bright Solutions hopes to run child care centers, developed by trained education professionals, that foster stimulating environments to put parents’ minds at ease. Special attention is paid to social development, physical activity and fun with music, art and language. The center boasts the facility to effectively manage the children of faculty, staff, and students in order to enable Cornell employers to focus on their jobs. Bright Solutions has partnerships with a number of higher educational institutions, including, among others, Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The center itself can hold 158 children, which breaks down to about 48 infants, 50 toddlers, and 60 preschool children. The children range anywhere from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Catering to a Cornell audience, the center is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day that Cornell is open.

“The center is currently serving 182 children with full and part-time care options. As of Sept. 5, the representative breakdown of Cornell parents using the center is 39 percent staff, 38 percent faculty and 23 percent student,” Lynette Chappell-Williams, the associate vice president for workforce diversity and inclusion, stated in an e-mail.

The Cornell Child Care Center is just one of many ways that Cornell has tried to assist its employees and students with child care. The Office of Human Resources also has resources for how to obtain informal childcare, information on the University Cooperative Nursery School, as well as a list of all private and public schools in the Tompkins County area, including activities such as summer camps.

Despite the variety of programs and resources provided by the new center, some members of Cornell’s community are still unhappy with the closing of the previous Early Childhood Center in the College of Human Ecology. The ECC closed in 2008 due to a shift in the direction of research in the child development department.

“We worked very hard to learn from ECC and bring many of their wonderful programs and philosophies into the Cornell Childcare Center. ECC was not closed due to the opening of the new center. The College of Human Ecology made the decision to close the center based on changes in their academic direction,” said Mary Opperman, Vice President for Human Resources.

While the decision to build the Cornell Childcare Center was not a result of the closing of the ECC, the closing did have an impact on the construction of the facility and its programming.

“This decision [to close ECC] was made after we were well into the planning of the new center. What we did was to stop and change some of the center designs so we could include some opportunities for observational research into the center, for those faculty still interested in this avenue of research.”

The CCC has a large role to fill in connecting the center with the community.

“Despite the very large logistical task of opening a center of this size, center administrators and teachers have strived to achieve this mission through care quality and family partnerships,” Chappell-Williams stated in an e-mail. “Certainly there have been challenges during the first year of operation, which were to be expected. However, we’re pleased that the current center administration is working so diligently to ensure the core mission is being achieved on a daily basis.”

The center also encourages the feedback of parents and children in order to help develop the programming and other things important to families, like the cost of childcare. In the face of tough economic times, the rates associated with child care at the CCC has increased from the past year due to a restricted budget and the new trial period associated with any new business. However according to Chappell-Williams there are programs aimed at financially assisting those in financial stress.

“Since 2001, the University has offered the Child Care Grant Subsidy Program for faculty and staff and a separate program for students. The faculty/staff grant served nearly 900 faculty/staff parents in 2009, an increase of almost 200 recipients from 2008,” Chappell-Williams stated.

The applicants to this program can use the money for any different number of child care options, including the CCC.

“It has been necessary to institute new financial controls to ensure that the program remains within the budget originally established for the initiative,” Chappell-Williams stated.

Despite the economic problems associated with a new facility, parents of the children that attend the CCC appear to be generally happy with the facility and its care.

“[I] have been very satisfied with the care provided at Bright Horizons. Aside from a few isolated incidences when the center first opened which I attribute to growing pains, we have had nothing but positive experiences,” said Lauren Coffey, mother of two children attending CCC.

Cornell-affiliated parents seem to enjoy the close proximity of the center to their workplace and the ease with which they can stop by and check in on them during the day. Coffey expressed the convenience of keeping her children at the center.

“There are a lot of options in the area for kids who are older than 18 months, but limited options for newborns. Bright Horizons was a perfect fit because they offered daycare for kids from 6 weeks to 5 years, so both our children could be together and it would make our lives easier as parents because we only had to do one dropoff and one pick up. Because of the close proximity, I have been able to visit Owen every day at lunch, and on Fridays, Isabella comes to his classroom for a ‘family lunch.’ I’m able to hop in my car, drive to the center, and be back all in an hour. It’s wonderful, and being able to visit them at lunchtime is the highlight of my day.”

Ultimately the center provides parents with convenience and provides the children with a positive learning experience, “I've gotten to witness first hand how teachers interact with the kids. They are so loving, patient and nurturing, and it has made a world of difference. I trust them completely with my child, and they make being a working mom a lot easier. Knowing that he is safe and happy and being cared for by competent individuals gives me peace of mind,” Coffey said.