WE DID
THE MATH
Leila Vieira She, Her, Hers Graduate, Spanish and Portuguese
To learn more about the work of the Housing and Family Affairs committee or other work of the Council of Graduate Students, visit https://cgs.osu.edu/.
We did the math. Graduate students who are funded at the minimum, graduate student stipend level and who have one infant enrolled full-time at the Ohio State childcare program, are paying 64% of their monthly stipend in childcare fees. That leaves very little for rent, food and other basic needs- much less for educational expenses. For students supporting their households on one income, (such as international students, who are not allowed to work outside of the university) additional financial assistance is vital for educational progress and their well-being. I am fortunate that both my husband and I receive graduate student stipends, so we were able to send our son, Alex, to daycare part-time since he was 4 months old.
The Housing and Family Affairs Committee recently prepared a report documenting the need for child care assistance at Ohio State. The university currently receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Program. Administered by the ACCESS Collaborative Program in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, CCAMPIS funding is crucial to supporting low-income student parents and encouraging them to continue their education. However, not all students are eligible for this program; it excludes international students, and priority is given to Pell-eligible undergraduate students, leaving graduate students to be considered only if funding is available and the student meets income requirements. When comparing Ohio State to other educational institutions, the university falls short in offering child care assistance to its graduate and professional students. At other institutions, including most of our Big Ten peer institutions, financial assistance is available to support child care costs. It usually comes from one of these three sources: 1) the Graduate School or a specific department; 2) student activity fees or financial aid; or 3) the graduate student government. Currently, none of these funding sources are utilized to support child care assistance for For the 2020-2021 academic graduate and professional students year, I am the chair of the Housing at Ohio State. and Family Affairs Committee in the Council of Graduate Students at Ohio I have shared the Housing and State. My committee has been work- Family Affairs report with the univering on strategies to implement a child sity’s Parenting & Pregnant Students care assistance grant for graduate Support Committee (PPSSC). This students. Ohio State does not cur- committee is charged with developrently collect information on parenting ing a university-wide support system students. However, a student survey for parenting and pregnant students conducted by the Office of Student and their families throughout all stagLife in 2018 asked students about es of their university career. We are their parenting status. The survey hopeful that this group will amplify found that 16.3% of graduate stu- our voice as we advocate for graddents--74 out of 454 graduate stu- uate students, who are struggling to dents who responded--reported being provide for their children while profinancially responsible for dependent gressing academically. children. Assistant Vice Provost Yolanda Zepeda shared this statistic, noting that this projection may be so high, as parenting students tend to have greater needs, hence, responding to the survey at higher rates than their non-parenting peers. 21
