West Virginia University is on track to have a campus child care center, which will serve families of students and employees, by the summer of 2009, WVU first lady Heather Garrison announced Wednesday (Jan. 16.)

Plans are moving forward, she said, thanks to the dedication and hard work of a 17-member child care facility implementation teammade up of faculty, staff, students and administratorsin a short period of time.

Garrison and Joe Fisher, associate vice president for facilities and services, co-chair the committee charged with reviewing past studies of child care and developing a plan to implement in the new facility as quickly as possible.

Since its formation in October, the group has laid out an aggressive timeline, selected a location (University-owned land adjacent to Krepps Park at the corner of Patteson Drive and Jerry West Boulevard), conducted numerous site visits and reviewed similar programs at other institutionsboth in and out of state.

The result of the committees work is a request for proposal, or RFP , which will be used to identify a state-of-the-art provider to operate WVU s new center. The University issued the RFP Tuesday (Jan. 15), marking an important milestone.

During Mikes (President Mike Garrisons) public forums on WVU s future, quality-of-life issues like campus child care were raised by students and employees,Heather Garrison said.The WVU Child Care Center is part of his commitment to families.

I couldnt be more proud of the work this committee has accomplished,she added.In October, we were given the charge to identify a location for the facility and to solicit proposals by January for professional child care organizations to operate it. I am pleased to announce that we have met our goals within that time frame.

Among the criteria listed in the RFP , the provider must have a proven track record of quality care, an understanding of child care in a university setting, excellent programs and services, affordable tuition costs and a plan for establishing a parent advisory council.

Plans call for securing an architect soon, and WVU expects to break ground this summer.

Were making excellent progress,said Beth Gallon Lefevre, developmental advising specialist in WVU s College of Human Resources and Education.We set a schedule for ourselves that were keeping. Everyone is very excited to receive interested parties for the proposals. I know that the University communitys been waiting for this, and were ready to get it going.

Toni Christian, director of benefits administration in the Division of Human Resources, said,I am proud to be a part of this administrations commitment to families of WVU employees and students. Having an on-campus child care center is an important benefit in attracting and retaining a world-class work force. Coupled with WVU s child care reimbursement/assistance program for employees and other child support programs for students, I believe our services for families will be first class.

Toni Morris, instructor in the Department of Community Medicine and chair of WVU s Council for Womens Concerns, also praised the Garrison administration for its commitment to family issues.

The councilmade up of faculty, staff and studentswas created in 1977 to discuss the changing needs of women on college campuses, she said.

Dr. Elaine Ginsberg was the first chair of the council and she said, �€~Our real goal on the council is to work ourselves out of business. If the University can become so responsive to womens needs over the next few years, well no longer be needed.Well, that didnt happen, but finally after 30 years, the child care issue will be addressed,Morris said.

Child care has been an important student issue for many years, WVU Student Government Association President Jason Parsons said, and putting together the RFP is an important step toward making a campus day care a reality.

I think its great that the plan has moved along so quickly,he said.Im very pleased students at WVU will now have a child care center, and Im looking forward to the day when we cut the ribbon.