WCC’s former Children’s Center makes way for Morris Lawrence staff, long-term plans uncertain

by RUBY GO
Staff Writer

A year and a half after the last child-care activity ended, the former Children’s Center at WCC is being cleared out.

For now, the space will be used to house staff members whose offices in the Morris Lawrence building will be unavailable when that building goes under renovation, according to Linda Blakey, executive vice president of student and academic affairs.

In April, WCC officials announced that the decades-old child care center would not reopen after the pandemic. Instead, WCC has shifted from providing on-campus child care to offering more scholarship money for off-campus care, Blakey said. Trudi Hagen, who was the director of the Children’s Center for more than 15 years, declined the request to comment.

Pre-pandemic, less than 1% of WCC’s 21,000 students were utilizing the Children’s Center, and it cost over $1,000,000 annually to run, according to Blakey. The decision to permanently close the center came with the increased demand for off-campus care, as more and more students now opt for online classes. Students with jobs also prefer off-campus care.

“We were seeing an increasing need for off-campus care and decreasing need for on-campus care. So, naturally, we shifted our focus to the off-campus care,” Blakey said.

When the decision to close the child care center was made, WCC officials said the building would be repurposed by Washtenaw Technical Middle College (WTMC), the high school at WCC. MLive reported that news on April 21. However, WTMC officials now say that move is not firm. Plans to take over the building are only in “the talking stages,” school officials said. Dean Karl Covert could not be reached for comment. Staff members in his office said he is not able to discuss the matter at this time.

Child-care scholarships

Without the added cost of running on-campus child care services, the money available for the child care scholarships has risen from about $40,000 to $200,000, Blakey said.

The amount of money each student is awarded depends on their individual circumstances. A full-time student would, in most cases, be given more money than a part-time student, according to Blakey. But what if that part-time student has more kids than the full-time student? Many factors are taken into account when determining how much money each student will be awarded.

“Everyone has such different circumstances that we can’t just award a set amount to everyone and call it a day,” Blakey said.

The scholarship is only good for the semester awarded. Students looking for ongoing support need to reapply for the scholarship each semester. The deadline to apply for the Winter 2022 semester is Nov. 15.

As students apply to WCC, they are able to indicate any areas where they might need support, child care being one of them, Blakey said. If a student indicates that they require child care support, they are sent additional information via email regarding available resources. Information about the child care scholarships (and others) can also be found on WCC’s website.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the executive vice president of student and academic affairs Linda Blakey. The Washtenaw Voice apologizes for the error.