Case Study
Childcare Advocacy
This is the story of my childcare advocacy as UW’s Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Vice President in 2010–2011, through news clips from The Daily (UW) and the Seattle Times. Organized chronologically.
I led a campus-wide campaign for students with children by organizing a student-parent mixer and Bring Your Kid to School Day, and launching a student task force on the issue. These efforts would eventually result in UW announcing a $3 million on-campus childcare center.
I also directed external relations for GPSS with the state Legislature. I successfully lobbied for state Legislature to restore funding to this student aid program. Despite a $5.1 billion state budget shortfall, the funding was reinstated in the omnibus budget bill.
The Daily, 5/17/10
“This year, we’re really trying to step up our emphasis on the federal level, because there’s a lot that affects graduate and professional students on the federal level,” Henry said. “Everything from immigration for our foreign students, the debt that students take on, and, as always, keeping higher education accessible to a diverse population.”
The Daily, 9/29/10
“UW provides facilities, but there are private contractors who run it, which make it unaffordable for many people and have huge waiting lists,” Henry said. “The wait is typically two to three years, and doesn’t make sense for a student in a two-year program.”
The Daily, 12/2/10
Graduate student Ben Henry is facing what he says is budget Armageddon. “I tried to frame things in a way that would really speak to legislators so that they realize we are in an economic crisis right now, but to get out of it, they need to make an investment in higher education,” Henry said. “This is going to be an all-cuts budget where there will be no magic to come in and fix it all.”
The Daily, 1/31/11
Ben Henry, vice president of GPSS, said at the task force’s first meeting this past Thursday that the members’ main focus should be the educational outcomes of student parents. Henry said they fare worse than traditional students in terms of college completion, citing a forthcoming study that suggests only five percent of undergraduate single parents earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of entering college.
“If student parents aren’t graduating, then that’s a problem,” Henry said.
The Daily, 3/1/11
“There’s been a lot of talk about how we need to focus on outcomes rather than inputs,” Henry said. “When it comes to higher education, outcomes means degrees produced. We’re currently in a shortage of degree-production. What this bill would do is mitigate what is currently the third largest barrier for degree completion, and that is child care.”
The Daily, 3/9/11
“What we’re going to be doing is pursuing getting this entire bill as a part of that big budget bill,” Henry said. “Sen. Brown has vowed that she will pursue that task. I think that we’re sad to see the stand-alone bill is dead, but there’s still a lot more work to be done.”
Seattle Times, 3/15/11
Historically, student groups have opposed letting regents and trustees have control of tuition increases, said Ben Henry, vice president of UW’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS). “These are things we would have dismissed out of hand” in previous years, he said. Now, “the tone of students is acquiescence.”
The Daily, 5/5/11
“A lot of students don’t realize how many student-parents there are. We’re hoping to change the culture on campus and make it more family friendly. We’re asking students to bring their children to school on Monday, but we don’t know how many people will be able to do that because it’s really difficult to bring kids on campus.”
Seattle Times, 5/9/11
“I rarely see children on campus, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have brought my own son to campus,” said Henry, of the GPSS. “It shouldn’t be that way.”
The Daily, 5/31/11
“There will be parents, who wouldn’t otherwise be receiving assistance, that will receive funding from the child-care assistance program,” Henry said.
The Daily, 6/1/11
For GPSS, which has advocated for student-parents for many years and was instrumental in creating the child-care program coordinator position, the Students with Children Awareness Day on May 9 and the Students With Children Census were important steps in raising awareness and defining the problem.
Child care is currently the third-greatest barrier to degree completion, according to the state’s Workforce Board. For most student-parents, parenthood significantly delays their graduation and impacts their academic performance. A preliminary analysis of the census finds that 71 percent of all survey participants say parenthood will delay their graduation. Meanwhile, 63 percent say parenthood has a “moderate” or “significant” impact on their academic performance.
The Daily, 6/3/11
“The Legislature has made a clear and deliberate choice to shift even more of the burden of funding higher education onto the backs of students,” Henry said. “This will mean more students who must take on suffocating debt just to compete for a job. It will mean more instances of a quality education going only to those who can afford it.”
The Daily, 10/5/11
A long-standing issue for UW student-parents is that there is too much demand for child care on campus but not enough availability and resources, GPSS Vice President Ben Henry, told The Daily last week.
The Daily, 10/8/15
The University of Washington announced Thursday its plans to use $3 million to expand child care services on campus.
