See Small-town, page 15 See Things, page 17 Volume XLlll Issue 3
October 20, 2015
A wish for on-campus child care Taylor Waines The Chronicle
The UOIT Campus Childcare Centre’s (CCC) website says it is “conveniently located” for students, and faculty of UOIT and Durham College. Inconvenience, however, is the word that comes to mind for 19-yearold Janelle Sampson, a Social Service Work student. Sampson has her hands full as a second year student and a mother of two-year-old Isabella, and two-month-old Kai. Last year, Sampson looked into the CCC in hopes of an easy solution to combining her home and school life. Sampson found that though the school runs the childcare, it is located off campus. Sampson thought it was an on-campus daycare, and once finding out it wasn’t, she decided it was too inconvenient. “Even when I tried to contact them, no one answered the phones, no one was returning my calls,” said Sampson. After spending the time and energy, her daughter Isabella, was put on the waitlist. However, the CCC never called her back about her daughter getting in, she says. Carrieann Knapp, the supervisor at the CCC, admits the telephones have raised issues recently, but says voicemail messages will be returned within a few hours. “ We are in the process of revamping and changing over our phone system,” says Knapp. “A new list of room extensions recently went out to parents to ensure that there is always somebody available to answer the phone.” As Sampson did not hear back from the CCC about her daughter’s placement, she is currently using a home-daycare in Ajax. Due to the current locationof her daycare, Sampson says, she
Chris Rego
LOCAL LONGING: Kendra Parkinson uses the UOIT Campus Childcare Centre for her son Zachary W. risks being late for her classes just to get her daughter to the daycare on time. Sampson says an on-campus daycare would be much more convenient for her and her daughter’s lives. Located near the intersection of Simcoe and Adelaide, even students who use the CCC long for it to be back on campus. Kendra Parkinson, 20, a Child and Youth Care student, has been using the schoolassociated daycare, for her two-year-old son Zachary. She says the staff is friendly, and the price is reasonable. When compared to two other daycares in the area the price is
fairly reasonable with the CCC landing around $224 a week. However, Parkinson says, her travel time is 30 minutes longer than it would be if the CCC was on campus and it takes away from time she could be spending with her son. “It makes it so I’m not spending as much time with him as I’d like to,” Parkinson says. “We’re losing approximately two hours a day.” Parkinson says location is not the only issue with the CCC; the hours of operation could also be an issue for some students. Closing at 6:30 p.m., students may be rushed for time to get to the off-campus location.
“It just doesn’t work if your class is past 5p.m.…there would be late charges,” said Parkinson. Knapp says they have seen no issues with their current hours, but if many parents did raise this issue the CCC would look into it. Media reports say Durham College previously ran an oncampus daycare but closed due to deficits. Knapp says, following the closure, the CCC opened on campus for two years, before relocating. “Daycare is a never-ending financial battle. It is definitely not a money making prospect. Legislations continue to change the face of childcare and hope-
fully by riding the course we will find a way to remain viable and sustainable,” says Knapp. Knapp says there are currently no plans to open a second daycare on the north campus. However, many students with children hope to see its return. “It would be amazing!” Parkinson says. “It would cut my commute down, it would make it so I could spend time with my son even between classes. It would just make life much simpler.” Knapp assures students that the current location offers benefits including easy access for both campuses, and a safer area for the children to play.
proximately 47,000 Canadians die annually to hard drugs, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA). These drugs include MDMA, Liquid X, and Roofies (date rape). People who use these drugs are usually very loud and uncontrollable, says Athanas, adding the reactions tend to be intense. As a result, this may push kids away from taking these drugs onto campus. “We try to do as much as we can,” says Athanas, address-
ing the issue of party drugs on campus. The Student Association and Residence Life start off with subtle advertising to bring awareness to party drugs. Athanas says that they will publish posters and awareness boards that provide information on different drugs, the dangers of these drugs and the effects of these drugs. Athanas also says that sometimes Residence Life runs drug awarness events. He recalls one time when each student was given some juice and inside the
juice was a different coloured skittle. The skittles were used to symbolize different kinds of party drugs, including date rape. Athanas says that the SA will bring in guests to speak to students about drugs as well as their own personal experiences with these dangerous and illegal drugs. It is not taken lightly when a student is found using such hard drugs on campus. Athanas says that in the case a student is found with hard drugs, it’s nev-
er just the one student, it has a “ripple effect,” he says. Athanas says that with all drugs, including marijuana, students always claim that they only tried it once. Just once is enough to end your life., he says. Unfortunately, many teens have the mindset that they are invincible, he adds. Athanas says that Residence Life, the SA, and Campus Security ensure that they will do their best to educate students on the dangers of drugs as well as make sure students stay safe.
X-treme drugs aren’t an issue in residence
Alyssa Erwin The Chronicle
Hard drug usage is not a problem within the residences at Durham College and UOIT. At least according to Marc Athanas, the Residence Life Manager it is not. “I could count on one hand where these drugs have openly been being used in a room,” he proudly says. Unfortunately that does not mean that students are not using these drugs off campus. Ap-