UBC child care an important issue
The Ubyssey - Vancouver
By Amanda Reaume
February 3rd, 2009

In the six years that I have spent at UBC completing two degrees, attempts to increase child care spaces and access at UBC have been largely in vain. Over the years, there has been a lot of talk and posturing about how child care spaces will be increased, new buildings will be built and more student parents will be able to have access to the UBC Child Care system. Well, I’m still waiting to actually see all of those things come to fruition.

The wait lists for daycare at UBC are still two to three years (sometimes longer) and there are still over 1300 children on those wait lists. Something has to be done. Student parents, and especially female single parents, are being unduly inconvenienced and are having their studies interrupted or even terminated due to the inability to find licensed care. As the editor of Antigone Magazine, the campus’s feminist semi-annual publication, I’ve decided it has to start with our organization. Next academic year, we will be spearheading a campaign to put pressure on all decision makers to make child care access at UBC a priority and hopefully (finally!) a reality. That is why we decided to look at the candidates for the AMS elections and to find out their positions on child care at UBC.

We were very relieved to discover that many of the candidates were very supportive of child care.

…. I will be voting for child care at UBC in this AMS election and I encourage you to do so as well. …