As Ithaca College houses the Coddington Road Community Center childcare program for the first semester of a 2-year agreement, some community members discuss the possibilities and impact of a long-term partnership.
In March, the college announced that the Circles Community Center would be an annex for the CRCC for two years. CRCC moved to the college temporarily in preparation of an expansion project at its main site on Coddington Road. Construction may take two to three years before it is completed, but the CRCC and the college are using the opportunity to test if the partnership could be long term.
Heather Mount, executive director of CRCC, said that transitioning to the college has been a smooth process. Mount said she appreciates the help from college facilities like Dining Services, which provides meals for the children, and the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, which has helped with parking and keeping the children safe.
“It has been great,” Mount said. “Being at Ithaca College gives us a good opportunity to form a relationship and test to see if that is a great fit.”
Mount said that while there have not been any official conversations about the facility being long term, she is not opposed to the idea.
“Childcare is a high need in the area,” Mount said. “I don’t think that there’s an upper limit where we would say we don’t need any more childcare because our waitlist is double the size of our current facility. And so there’s always more families looking for childcare.”
Bill Kerry, executive director of the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, said the open communication between CRCC and the college has made the transition easier.
“Heather and her team have been amazing partners,” Kerry said. “And it’s the planning that went into this and their continued partnership that’s really made this go really well, at least from a public safety perspective.”
Katelynn Groh, Circle Apartments community director for the Office of Residential Life and Student Conduct and Community Standards, said via email that she has not heard any feedback from residents or Apartment Assistance in Circles. However, Groh said the children are using the women’s bathroom for long periods of time.
“Sometimes it can take upwards of 20 minutes to get all the kids in and out, and we have a front office staff of mostly women,” Groh said via email. “We are exploring many different options and solutions so that women aren’t having to wait to go to the bathroom.”
In an email sent to the Circles community Sept. 14, Groh said that as a result of the children in the community center, all male-identifying bathrooms will be used as gender-neutral bathrooms for the time being.
Junior Ruari Maloney, a Circle Apartments AA, said he will sometimes see the children being directed by the staff when he is picking up mail or doing his laundry and has not interacted with them. Maloney said it is important that the children are safe.
“The kids always have their adult supervising people with them,” Maloney said. “Whenever they go out, I see them with at least two. So they kind of keep the kids from getting in the way of the students and I think the students all just kind of respect the fact that they shouldn’t [bother] the daycare kids.”
Senior Alexa Tamis said she first heard about the daycare in her education class in Spring 2023. Tamis said she liked the idea of the daycare center because it would help parents who are busy and allow students to work with the children.
“It’s very demanding hours here and a lot of professors are passionate … and need extra time to do work and prepare and plan,” Tamis said. “Knowing that your kids are on campus and safe near you, I think it is really helpful if they need to grab them really quickly.”
Tamis said one of the concerns she has heard from people in Circles is that college students are doing recreational activities nearby.
“There’s always going to be dangerous people on campus and maybe even students,” Tamis said. “You don’t know if they’re going to be safe around kids or what their intentions are. And also, kids can always run away into one of the different apartments and it‘s such a big area over there where cars go super fast.”
One of the main changes that the college had to implement was the addition of parking spaces in Circles for the CRCC staff so there would not be overlap with student vehicles. Kerry said that besides initial parking issues, there have not been any other complaints made to the office about sharing the community center with CRCC. There are a total of eight parking spaces in Circles reserved for CRCC — four for daycare staff and four for pick up and drop-off.
Kerry said the college will soon discuss future plans for the daycare facility. Some of the things that will be discussed include how the daycare facility will operate in the next academic year and the demand for long-term child care.
“I kind of put myself in other people’s shoes who may be able to utilize that and I’d love to see that become a permanent thing for those that have children that want to be able to take advantage of that,” Kerry said. “The center itself in partnership with the college is still in its infancy and I think that there’ll be an assessment of what’s going well, and what can be done to improve it.”
Mount said the CRCC has volunteer and paid childcare positions for students at the college. She also said she has spoken to professors who have coursework related to childcare. There are currently two students at the college that work at the daycare.
“We are really enthusiastic about making connections with student groups and professors to see what types of things that we can do,” Mount said. “And collecting anecdotal data and quantitative data on whether or not this is a good collaboration [and] if it’s something that would be of long-term interest for Coddington and Ithaca College.”
Senior TJ Bogart, who is currently abroad in Los Angeles, said he would like to work at the daycare facility when he returns to the college next semester because of his experience working with children who have special needs in the program Wayne-Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Newark.
“I know not everyone will go straight into that job,” Bogart said. “But, it’s super nice to know that if that was an option to be put on the table for any major regardless of being an education or psychology base. I think it’s just really nice to know that the kids are getting taken care of, especially by someone who may be having kids five years from now.”
Groh said via email that she is glad that professors with children are advocating for child care because of the support it provides for faculty, staff and students when it comes to balancing work and school.
Childcare at the college is something many parents at the college have asked for. Childcare is one of the objectives of the Ithaca Forever Strategic Plan, which outlines long-term institutional goals.
“Having access to reliable, on-campus childcare allows one to pursue their careers while ensuring their children receive quality care and early education in a safe and convenient environment,” Groh said. “This support fosters a positive work-life balance, reducing the stress and potential obstacles that can hinder academic progress and success, especially when childcare is hard to come by in the Ithaca area.”
Zach Lewis, who has two kids that are currently in the daycare program at the college, said he has been sending his children to the main site for four years but took a small hiatus during the early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lewis said he was excited when he found out that the CRCC was going to move to the college because he was familiar with people at the college and felt the campus would be safe for his children.
Lewis also said he feels that the students will set a good example for his children and he thinks it is a great idea to let students work and volunteer at the daycare.
“[My kids] think it’s the coolest thing to hang out with IC college kids,” Lewis said. “It’s this wonderful bridge between boring parents and other little kids.”
Lewis said he and his spouse were impressed by how the center was running when they toured it.
“Our biggest concern was how happy the staff were and how happy the kids were when we interviewed,” Lewis said. “The staff just seemed really dedicated to that center and what they were doing and that’ll win you over as a parent for sure.”
