The Right to Life & the Shortcomings of Religious Institutions

Allison Solis, both student and Celts for Life member, begins her day at 7 a.m. to the sound of her son, Luke, awakening for the day. As she packs her diaper bag and backpack for the school day, she rushes to her car by 8:30 a.m. for the hour-long commute from Kingwood to the university. She drops off Luke with a friend while she attends her morning class.

When her first class ends at 10:50 a.m., depending on whether or not her friend was available to watch her son, she will either find a private spot to pump her breastmilk for Luke or breastfeed him if she brought him to her class. She then drops him off with the next babysitter, another friend of hers, until her class ends at 12:15 p.m., where she picks him up and has a break until 2:10 p.m. to try to eat lunch and feed Luke. Before she goes to her afternoon class, she drops him off with another friend until her class ends at 3:25 p.m., when she only has 10 minutes to drop him off with another friend or babysitter since she has another class at 3:35 p.m.

For an entire semester, this was Solis’ schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also, the support group of her friends who would watch Luke on those days varied since they all volunteered their own time to babysit and may not have been able to set aside the time every week to watch him.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she luckily had the help of her mother or grandmother to watch Luke – but with four younger siblings, watching an infant in addition to her siblings was a difficult challenge for her mother. On average, Solis had two babysitters a day.

“This semester is easier but harder at the same time,” she said. “The classes are more spread out, but I also work. This semester it was a lot easier to find people who could watch Luke, and it is usually the same people every week, which is great because it is consistent. But there are still days where there are times that my friends can’t watch Luke while I’m in class, so I have to find someone at the last second or just skip class.”

Students like Solis would feel less of the financial burden and stress that comes along with being a college student if the university offered some sort of on-campus childcare services, or if the institution offered outward support for student parents. The right to life of a child is one of many of the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church, yet it almost seems absurd that UST doesn’t provide on-campus childcare services, or anything of the like.

“I think what throws people off about the school, and what threw me off, was that the school said they are Catholic and totally pro-life but offer no vocal support or resources to help those who are in trouble and are a part of this community,” Solis said.

The Secular Counterparts

Houston itself is a huge city – as the fourth most populous city in the country, and a size bigger than most states (and even countries), it comes as no surprise that we are home to several major universities and two main community college systems. It should also come as no surprise that almost all major Houston-area universities and colleges offer some sort of on-campus childcare services – with the exception of the University of St. Thomas and Houston Baptist University:

The University of Houston’s Children’s Learning Centers, once called the UH Child Care Center, has two locations on (main) campus. The center looks after a combined total of 221 children. The center also provides students the hands-on curriculum needed as they study early childhood development with “multi-age classrooms to assist the overall development of the child within the family-like community of learners,” UH reports.

Rice Children’s Campus, operated by the Center for Early Childhood Education, serves the children of Rice university faculty and students, from birth to 5 years old.

Texas Southern University provides two “learning laboratories” - The Parent-Child Learning Laboratory accepts children from 2 weeks to 36 months old, and the W.R. Banks Child Development Laboratory serves children who are 3 and 4 years old.

Both the Lone Star College System and Houston Community College offer on-campus childcare services (the ages and qualifications to enroll children may vary depending on different campuses).

Granted, these universities are also public institutions and have student enrollment numbers much larger than that of UST. Thus, these institutions have the funds and facilities to provide on-campus childcare services. However, there are imperative reasons why student parents and prospective students would benefit from these daycare services or even child-friendly college programs.

Why Students Need These Services

One reason for why current and future students can benefit from on-campus childcare services is obvious – outside childcare services are expensive, and the costs are only growing. According to an article written by Susan Johnston for The Washington Post in 2012, “The cost of childcare for two children now exceeds annual average rent payments in many parts of the country, according to a report released last month by Child Care Aware of America…and in 35 states, the average annual cost for center-based care for an infant exceeds a year's in-state tuition and related fees at a four-year public college.”

According to an article written by Alex Henderson for Salon, “a 2014 report by Child Care Aware of America found that daycare could be as high as $14,508 per year for an infant and $12,280 per year for a 4-year-old. And that is, in a sense, more troubling for new parents than the high cost of college tuition: while that expense is 17 or 18 years in the future, daycare is an expense working parents face right away.”

Child Care Aware of America reported that in 2014, there were about 3 million Texan families living with children – over 900,000 of those residents were single parent families, and a little over 700,000 families lived in poverty. Unfortunately, the annual fees for full-time care in a center was $8,619. With only 9,555 centers available in Texas, it comes to no surprise that parents may opt to stay home, rather than pursue a degree or join the workforce.

“I can't afford daycare because the state won’t help me with finances and I’m not, and am still not, getting child support,” Solis said.

Even though there 3.9 million student parents who are enrolled as undergraduates in colleges and universities, they are more likely to be low-income and working full-time than their childless-colleagues as a whole, reported in an article by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in 2011. Additionally, the institute reported that student parents can spend almost 70 hours or more on their jobs and caretaking duties – providing on-campus childcare services is critical for these students to succeed and finish their degree by alleviating the stress of juggling between caretaking, priorities and schoolwork.

These services benefit students like Lanan Raposa, a student at Lone Star College-CyFair. She said she dropped out of four universities because of the lack of childcare services offered at universities and colleges, but is now able to pursue a degree in nursing because she can take advantage of the on-campus daycare for her 4-year-old.

Unfortunately, the situations that students like Raposa face are not uncommon. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reported that “only 49 to 57 percent of two and four-year public colleges and universities, and a dismal 7 to 9 percent of two and four-year private colleges and universities offer child care facilities.”

“I truly do believe that an on-campus childcare service would benefit other on-campus parents whether they are students, faculty or staff,” Solis said. “I love the amount of help and support I have received from friends and loved ones, but I believe if the school was truly vested in taking care of its students and employees, they would make having an on-campus childcare service a priority.”

And finally, women still bear the burden of being the primary caretaker and face the “double” job of playing the role of both mother and father.

In an article written for Joann Weiner for The Washington Post, “While child care is an issue for all parents, it’s a particular issue for mothers. About 1.3 million of the 2 million student parents at community colleges in 2008 were mothers, according to the American Association of University Women. One way to help these moms stay in school is to provide on-campus child care services.”

Thus, the lack of any on-campus childcare services at UST perpetuates and instills the stereotype that a woman’s only place belongs at home with the child (a traditional gender stereotype that is generally more prominent between religious ideals as found in Christianity Stack Exchange), but being a stay-at-home parent can be a full-time job in itself. The lack of on-campus support for female students may explain why nearly one in five American women opt out of motherhood if they want to pursue a higher education, according to an article written by Katherine Dorsett for CNN.

Where Do We Go From Here?

While on-campus childcare services seems to be the do-all solution for helping out student

parents, especially because the Texas Tribune reported that Texas has the nation’s fifth largest birth rate among teenagers, there are limitations and drawbacks to what on-campus childcare services can provide. Providing such a service would almost be impossible for a small, private institution like UST.

One such student who can’t take advantage of the on-campus daycare services is Keila Vieyra, who is a student at Lone Star College-CyFair. Requirements to enroll children at the daycare include that children must be at least four years old and potty trained – which are rules that her son doesn’t qualify for.

“It would be a lot easier if he was in the daycare because I wouldn’t have to wake up extra early and make an extra stop to drop him off,” Vieyra said. “Most of my classmates have parents watching their children or have them in a daycare that isn’t on-campus.”

Also, providing a daycare facility and family housing – both of which the university currently does not have – comes with a hefty price tag and major liability and legal issues, said Marquis Gatewood, who is the director of resident life and conference housing.

“There’s a lot of things that can happen here that may not happen at a daycare or at your house, like a building-wide fire or busted pipes,” Gatewood said. “There’s so many things here that you have to consider whenever you have minors here, and we’re just not built for that especially if the resources are not here. But one of the benefits of being a Catholic institution is that we’re connected with so many organizations and groups that if anyone needed the support, they can get connected to those resources.”

If the university doesn’t have the ability to provide these on-campus childcare services, whether if it’s a possibility for the foreseeable future or never, there are ways that St. Thomas can implement child-friendly college programs for parents, as reported by U.S. News. This includes active support networks and systems, parenting skills courses and providing more online classes.

Because unfortunately, it just seems like the university aims at “Educating Leaders of Faith and Character” so as long as you’re not a parent.