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Tuesday, September 19, 2017 — 3
breadth of its impact is similar.
For those 5,000, the benefits are
life-changing. Quisha and Byron
Cooper have been working toward
degrees at Ferris State University
in Big Rapids, Mich., for four years,
while raising children since their
sophomore
year.
Without
the
program, the Coopers say, they
wouldn’t have been able to go to
college at all.
“To us, the grant is humongous,
because it’s literally how we live our
lives and how we’re able to function
and go to school and work and still
have affordable, reliable daycare,”
Quisha said. “Before I had children,
I was always goal-oriented and
wanted to obtain a degree and go
to school for social work. So yeah,
there was a time when we didn’t
participate in the grant, but it wasn’t
a time that I want to go back to.”
However,
that
could
all
disappear with the passage of the
next federal appropriations bill,
likely to be passed by both chambers
of Congress in late September.
According to documents obtained
by The Washington Post, the
budgets proposed by the Trump
administration and the House of
Representatives for the upcoming
fiscal year cancel funding for
CCAMPIS, as well as several other
higher education programs.
Colin
Seeberger,
strategic
campaigns
director
at
Young
Invincibles –– a policy and advocacy
nonprofit for young adults that
works with students in CCAMPIS
––
said
he
was
particularly
disappointed by the news given the
history of bipartisan support for the
program.
“Senator Susan Collins and
her
former
colleague
Senator
Olympia Snowe, both of whom
are
Republicans,
formerly
were co-sponsors of CCAMPIS
reauthorization bills,” Seeberger
said. “That’s something that hasn’t
really been questioned before,
whether it was something that had
the support of Republicans and
Democrats. We would hope that
it would not and this would not
become as partisan of a program.”
In its budget proposal, the
Trump administration justified the
elimination of the program, saying
“subsidizing expenses associated
with child care is not consistent
with
the
Department’s
core
mission.”
But Seeberger disagrees.
“Helping students get in, access
and complete school has always
been part of the mission at the
Department of Education, so that
was kind of alarming,” he said.
Far from cutting the program,
Seeberger thinks it should be
expanded
to
a
$500
million
program
via
grant
matching,
with $250 million coming from
the federal government and the
other $250 million coming from
matching funds from states and
higher
education
institutions.
Doing that, he argues, would allow
the program to serve 250,000
student-parents living in poverty.
As it is now, he said, the program
meets the needs of the students it
serves, “but doesn’t actually meet
the scale of the challenges we’re
seeing.”
And while there are plenty
of other government programs
in need of funding, Seeberger
points out each dollar going
toward CCAMPIS has additional
effect because of the program’s
“multigenerational
impact.”
He
said he’s had students who say
the grant brings what would be a
thousand-dollar monthly child care
bill down to $150 per semester.
“You can imagine, when you’re a
student-parent and you’re focused
on your studies, maybe you’re
working a full-time or part-time
job but still raising a child — that
extra $900 a month can be all the
difference in the world of being
able to buy your textbooks, being
able to feed your family, being able
to — for that matter — stay in school
and take on less student debt,” he
said. “You’re getting that much
more bang for your buck, ensuring
that kids are growing up in more
economically stable family units as
well.”
The Coopers attest to this
emphatically, saying they now feel
confident in the environment in
which their children are growing
up. And more than just being
safe and affordable, they say
CCAMPIS creates an atmosphere
that is uniquely enriching for their
children.
“If this grant was cut, we would
probably have to go back to working
full-time and maybe cut education
out for a while. So our kids probably
wouldn’t grow up in the same
atmosphere that they are in right
now, because right now we do this
on campus in student housing, they
have a very rich cultural setting
around, just as far as the diversity,”
Quisha Cooper said. “Literally, our
children grow up on the campus
of Ferris State University and get
a huge experience and a different
outlook that kids their age don’t
often get just going to a regular
daycare or just staying at home.”
According to Byron, they never
had any difficulty enrolling in the
program and it never caused them
any confusion. If they keep their
GPAs above 2.5, he explained, then
Ferris State covers half the cost
of their child care. Above a 3.0, it
covers 75 percent, and above a 3.5
all expenses are covered.
“Our daycare facility pretty
much helped us out with that a
lot,” he said. “So it wasn’t a difficult
process to sign up for at all. We
just filled out a form or so, and our
daycare provider did the rest.”
Child care at the University
And while the grant is not big
enough for everyone who would
like to use it, some institutions have
taken the CCAMPIS model and
made it their own. The University’s
Ann Arbor campus was a CCAMPIS
grant recipient until 2005, but
stopped pursuing federal funding
because the program was targeted
mainly toward undergraduates,
rather than graduate students.
Since
2005,
though,
the
University has been funding its
own program, now known as
the Campus Child Care Homes
Network.
Functioning
as
a
complement to the University’s
three
main
children’s
centers
serving
faculty,
students
and
staff, Campus Child Care Homes
is now a collection of 11 homes in
Northwood Family Housing that
provide daycare for about 150
children. Recruited and trained by
the University and licensed by the
state, students’ spouses often care
for other children alongside their
own.
Jennie McAlpine, director for
the Work-Life Resources Program
at the University, said the shift from
federal to University funding was a
natural transition.
“Around the time the grant was
about to run out, we looked at things
differently and we thought that
capping it to experienced and long-
running child care providers in the
community would be a good way to
go; it would be very stable and work
for a very long time,” she said. “And
at that time, we just began, once
we secured funding here from the
University, we just began to make
that our focus, and now we have 11
campus child care homes which are
state-licensed, home-based child
care centers for University families,
and we count those child care
spaces for any affiliates: Students,
or staff or faculty.”
And,
according
to
Amy
Szczepanski,
the
homes
are
preferable over the larger children’s
centers for a variety of reasons.
“They, in their agreement with
us, we help them by providing
support for training and equipping
and improving their homes, so it
provides another more than 150
spaces
available
to
University
families that often accommodate
more flexible hours, that are a
little bit less expensive than our
children’s centers, they have more
room for infants than our children’s
centers,” she said.
Veronica Varela, a Rackham
student currently working toward
her Ph.D. in neuroscience, has two
daughters aged 9 and 12. She said
the University’s child care stipend
and flexible child care program
options were one of the main
factors in her decision to come here.
While child care is still a major
concern for her, it is less so than it
used to be, as her children are of age
to enroll in public school. It wasn’t
always that way, though. Varela
started her undergraduate degree
at California State University at
San Bernardino almost a decade
ago, when her youngest was only 6
months old. The only reason college
was a possibility for her –– then a
single mom, though she got married
two years ago –– was the college’s
CCAMPIS program.
“Because
of
the
CCAMPIS
program I was able to have the girls
in preschool and daycare from 8
to 5. And I could utilize that time
in between classes to actually
study, because as soon as I got
home, there was no time to study.
I never would’ve been able to pass
my classes, I never would’ve even
been able to go to college if I didn’t
have that funding,” she said. “Only
because I had that funding and
because I had a safe place for my
girls to be was I able to be successful
enough to come to the University of
Michigan.”
Being a student-parent, Varela
said, she still feels guilty about
having to split time between her
education and her children –– and
occasionally having to take them
to lectures with her when they get
too sick to go to school or daycare.
However, CCAMPIS has made it
worthwhile for both Varela and her
children.
“I can say that it made a really
huge difference in my life,” she said.
“It made a huge difference in the
life of my children, because they
were able to be in programs that
they had fun, they learned, while I
was also getting my education. But
at the end of the day, I could spend
time with them.”
And
while
safe,
affordable,
reliable child care is invaluable
and life-changing to the students
and students’ children CCAMPIS
serves, Quisha said often what
makes it worth it is the community
of people who understand the
unique challenges she faces.
“I know students who use this
grant at Western, I know students
who use this grant at the University
of Michigan, we might see each
other on Facebook and say, ‘Oh hi,
you use this grant, I use this grant,
how are you, how are your kids
doing?’” she said. “So just to say
it’s a small grant, when you don’t
have kids and you’re not in that
lifestyle, yeah, it’s a small grant, but
when you’re a student and you’re a
mother or a father and you’re trying
to raise children and go to school,
you definitely link up with those
people very easily because they
understand your circumstances
and what you’re going through.”
PARENTS
From Page 1
Midterm election cycle.
Two
awards
will
be
given, one to the institution
that
yields
the
highest
percentage
of
eligible
voter turnout for the fall
2018
midterm
elections
and another to the one
that has the best overall
improvement
in
voter
turnout in comparison to
the 2014 elections.
In order to track how
many
students
each
university
is
registering,
the Big Ten Voter Challenge
has paired with the online
voter
registering
system
TurboVote to show how
many students from each
university have registered
by selecting their respective
university when signing up
online.
The
system,
which
streamlines the process of
registering to vote, allows
students
to
register
in
their
respective
districts
and states in which they
normally reside when not at
college.
At
the
latest
Central
Student
Government
meeting,
CSG
President
Anushka Sarkar, an LSA
senior,
clarified
some
concerns about the system.
“We
will
not
be
encouraging
people
to
be registered to vote in
Michigan or Ann Arbor
if this is not their regular
residence because there are
ethical concerns,” Sarkar
said.
In
collaboration
with
CSG, the Ginsberg Center
for
Community
Service
and Learning has taken
initiative
in
assisting
students with the online
process of registering to
vote
in
their
respective
states and districts where
they reside.
With
National
Voter
Registration
Day
approaching Sept. 26, CSG
will be canvassing on the
Diag throughout the day
urging students to register
to vote.
Last year, after a voter
registration
campaign
led on the Northwestern
University campus called
“NU
Votes,”
a
record
96
percent
of
freshman
students were registered to
vote, whereas beforehand
less than half of freshmen
were
registered
to
vote
according to an NU Votes
volunteer.
COMPETITION
From Page 1
found
around
campus
with
Roof’s face.
Diane Brown, spokeswoman
for the Division of Public Safety
and Security, said DPSS was
investigating the incident in
West Quad Residence Hall.
Brown
could
not,
however,
provide an update on the case as
of Monday afternoon.
Following the discovery of
the most recent writings, MCSP
hosted an event Sunday night
to provide an opportunity for
solidarity with Black students
and other students of color.
Those who were victims of the
writing spoke out, noting a lack
of tolerance for this on campus.
One
of
the
individuals
whose door was targeted, LSA
sophomore
Travon
Stearns,
spoke to the Daily prior to the
event
about
his
experience
seeing the writing on his door.
“Everybody was, of course,
especially
in
the
Black
community and even my friends
who are not part of the Black
community, was pretty outraged
and really concerned,” Stearns
said. “But they really were there
for me and let me know that if I
needed any help with support,
they’re there was me. They
were really upset with what had
occurred. Very outraged.”
On Monday night, an ad-hoc
group of students and members
of
the
Muslim
Students’
Association
placed
posters
around campus posting walls
saying “Black Lives Matter.”
Other students posted posters
saying “F--- White Supremacy.”
Business
senior
Chelsea
Racelis, also a member of the
Black-Asian
Coalition,
said
the action was as much about
solidarity
as
it
was
about
informing non-Black students
about the incidents.
“We expect hate from hateful
people,” she said. “But we expect
more from the rest, or those
who say they’re non-political.
In some classrooms, people act
like nothing happened. And you
can’t brush this under a mass
email or tweet … saying racism
doesn’t belong here. Clearly
there has been made space here
for these people.”
MCSP
Director
David
Schoem, an adjunct associate
professor, helped lead Sunday’s
event, noted a sense of unity
among the community.
“We feel terrible that in
our community they had to
experience
those
disgusting
things that were put on their
doors, and we want to show our
support and love,” he said. “We
hope you will feel that we are all
here to express that to you.”
Members of the University’s
Muslim Students’ Association
flyered the pillars surrounding
the Diag. MSA Outreach Chair
Arwa Gayar, an LSA sophomore,
said that when the incident
occurred in MCSP the MSA
began thinking of ways to
immediately act.
“Because we are MSA we are
posting it from our perspective,
we have a quote from the Quran,
it’s basically saying a white has
no superiority over a Black and
a Black has no superiority over
a white and the only superiority
people have over each other is
piety and no one knows how
pious someone is,” Gayer said.
“It is ingrained within our
religion this idea of equality so
it is a part of our mission to that
we are doing are part to make
sure equality is seen on this
campus.”
Racelis
noted
flyering
constitutes just one component
of students’ organizing.
“An action like this can’t
do anything wrong,” she said.
“But it has to be flyering
and
demanding
more
of
administration
and
calling
out racism and standing in
solidarity. It’s all of that.”
The block ‘M’ in the Diag
was also tagged with positive
messages following the incident,
similarly, with the phrase Black
Lives Matter.
POSTERS
From Page 1
to cross the road. She’s been hit
by a car almost twice. We need
alternate routes (because) we
have to figure out ways to get kids
across safely.”
Council
eventually
went
into a discussion of a resolution
that
would
direct
the
city
administrator to review the Ann
Arbor
crosswalk
ordinance.
The resolution received mixed
reviews from the group. While
some felt strongly a review of the
process could only be beneficial,
others argued it would unfairly
and inevitably lead to the removal
of the policy.
Councilman
Jack
Eaton,
D-Ward 4, is a sponsor of the
resolution. He spoke of the need
for a review of the process and
advocated for a push toward
a unified state-wide policy for
crosswalk protocol.
“I’m just pointing out that
this resolution does not seek to
overturn our current policy,”
Eaton said. “We need to have
this
ordinance
evaluated
by
professionals. … People who drive
in Ann Arbor are unaware of
our policies and how they drive
around pedestrians.”
CITY
From Page 1
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