A Room With a View

[caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Phil Lee with P.J. (photo by Jill Anderson)"][/caption]

Phil Lee really needed it. With the deadline for a journal article fast approaching, the Ed.D. student had to quickly review some books in the Gutman Library to expand on the article’s theory section. But there was a dilemma.

A 25-pound-dilemma.

That day, Lee was taking care of his two-year-old son, P.J. Although Lee had taken him to the library many times in the past, it was never easy.

“He would quickly get restless because there wasn’t much for him to do in Gutman while I worked,” Lee says.

That changed recently when the school opened a new parents’ room on the library’s second floor. The small room, complete with two workstations, a beanbag chair, kids’ books, and, perhaps most important, a door that shuts, gives students a place on campus to study with their children in tow.

The idea for the room came about in the fall of 2009 when the Office of Student Affairs held a meeting for parent students. Ed.D. student Erica Litke says a lot of common concerns came up, many focused on the difficulty of balancing school and parenting. Someone mentioned how great it would be to have a dedicated place on campus to go with children.

“This resonated with me,” says Litke, who had a 15-month-old at the time. “I was finding that there were times on Fridays when I needed to come to campus with my son, whether to print something, meet with someone briefly, or get other work done.”

A few months later, Dean Kathleen McCartney held a tea that allowed students to meet with her in small groups. While there, Litke pitched the idea for the parent room.

“The dean said that while a drop-off room wasn’t feasible, she thought the idea of a room for parents to supervise their own kids while getting work done was an easy one to implement,” Litke says.

And for the most part, it was. McCartney contacted John Collins, the director of the library, to see if he had space, which is always at a premium. Collins loved the idea — “There isn’t a downside,” he says — and repurposed a small office on the second floor with a fresh coat of paint, outlet covers, and picture books. Children’s furniture and posters from the American Library Association were later added.

Ed.D. student Clara Barata has used the room several times. Although she doesn’t have children of her own, she provides emergency childcare for classmates.

“In the past, I would look for space anywhere I could,” she says, which often meant an empty hallway. Now she uses the parents’ room.

McCartney says it’s important to be responsive when students have great ideas, especially when there’s a real need.

“Universities need to support students with young children,” she says. “If anyone should be able to figure out how best to do that, it should be a school of education.”