e-Bulletin 20171012

Are you willing to work toward providing access to childcare benefits for ALL Temple University faculty, librarians, and academic professionals?

If so, please join with other interested members of our bargaining unit at 3:00 to 4:30 on Wednesday, Oct 25 in Ritter 477A to plan what Temple can do to support parents who need child care or after school care for their infants, preschoolers, or school-age children.

On campus child care for infants and young children can be an effective tool for recruiting new, young faculty members, retaining existing faculty members, and increasing the availability of faculty members to students on campus.   Child care resources (such as an on-campus facility, a discounted fee for service for child care or after school care) offer a powerful incentive for faculty members and students to spend more time on campus and for faculty and staff to continue their employment at Temple University. As the recruitment and retention of faculty members becomes more difficult due to compressed salaries in the public sector, benefits beyond salary become a critical tool in recruiting and retaining talent.  Finally, an on-campus setting will provide research and teaching opportunities for Temple University faculty, librarians, academic professionals, and students.

At the October 25 meeting, we will:

1. Briefly review the history of child care at Temple and TAUP attempts to bargain with the University to provide child care or after school care for faculty.
2. Describe how Temple could support child care and even elder care for families.
3. Solicit your feedback and additional ideas.
4. Recruit additional members to serve on the Faculty Senate/TAUP Committee that was authorized by the 2014-2019 TAUP contract to formulate proposals for child care resources.
5. Develop plans to update the “Proposal to Develop Child Care Benefits for Dependent Children” joint report from the TAUP and Faculty Senate Committee submitted to the University in November 2015.

All members of the bargaining unit are welcome to attend.  Dues-paying members who are interested but are unable to attend should contact Marsha Weinraub, Psychology Department, for more information: Marsha.weinraub@temple.edu.  If you are a member of the bargaining unit but do not pay dues to TAUP and are interested in this effort, please contact Michael Sachs, President of the Faculty Senate:  msachs@temple.edu.

The newly approved plan to move ahead on the Alpha Center at Temple, a new PreK under the aegis of the College of Education is great news!  But this center may not do enough to provide much needed access to affordable, accessible, quality child care at Temple University for faculty and staff. According to sources at the College of Education, access to Temple staff, faculty and students will be limited.  So if you want to work for childcare benefits for ALL Temple University faculty, librarians, and academic professionals, please come to the meeting on the 25^th or get in touch with us!