Chapter 14
ANCIENT HISTORY

She arrived in early October 1965 to find that Fr. Schlitzer had found her a suitable apartment. Her next door neighbor was Mrs. Elizabeth Lynch, who was the very first woman to teach at Notre Dame. Elizabeth Lynch taught speech therapy and assisted many priests and students, but no one realized that she should had been given faculty status. (Her portrait is now in South Bend's hall of fame.) Dr. Alberta Ross was also teaching at Notre Dame at the time, as a research professional specialist in the Radiation Laboratory, but the Administration had refused her a tenure track line.

In 1965, the constituency of all undergraduate classes was entirely male, although there were a few women graduate students and flocks of nuns in full habit, exhausted by teaching school all year and expected to be successful in their MA or science degrees, seethed around the campus. The only other woman placed on the teaching faculty was Dr. Suzanne Kelly, who had left her Benedictine Order but always remained as a dedicated woman of God. She attempted to form a religious community, primarily for professional women, but failed, as the women lived too far from each other. Suzanne was, however, a great success at Notre Dame. Her background was the history of science and she was appointed to the General Program, now the Program of the Liberal Studies, the syllabus of which was Suzanne's creation. Unfortunately she never received tenure and left, but later returned to preside over the Sabbatical Program for Religious ( ). She was a woman who had the courage of her convictions and tended to be bold, creative and assertive. She practiced a deep but innovative spirituality — sometimes walking round the lakes as 2 am. Suzanne and Josephine joined a colorful group for daily Mass in Morrissey Hall, which included David Burrell, Ernie Bartel, John Gerber, Henri Nouwen and other vocal personages, who engaged in merry dialogue homilies. This was usually followed by supper at the South Dining Hall. Suzanne was very sociable and organized parties for football fans and cooked dinner for the sisters in Lewis Hall every other week.

Six of the teaching women formed "Committee W" to enquire into equity between men and women's rank, promotion and tenure. Eventually, they brought a class action suit designed to probe the alleged bias in the promotion and tenure of women faculty. The case was settled out of court and one woman gained promotion and tenure and another full professorship.

On the whole the students accepted these women well. Perhaps their dedication to teaching and research paved the way for more and more women being appointed. Courses on feminism — especially for the MDiv students — began to be offered, particularly due to the influence of Elisabeth Schlussler-Fiorenza. The Chair Persons and the Administration normally supported the women when there were complaints against them from students. A football player asserted that his (woman) professor had lost his paper. After this, no other football players were encouraged to enroll in that course. An MFA student challenged his (women) professor to a mediaeval dispute because she had criticized his paper.

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In 1971, Notre Dame was very concerned about the childcare needs of its faculty, students and staff. It therefore helped establish the Early Childhood Development Center, located on St. Mary's campus, first with a $10,000 annual grant, (later $15,000, even later in the early 1980's with the interest from a $50,000 endowment given by Father Hesburgh.) For twenty years the University of Notre Dame has cooperated with and supported that program which is still the case today. The Graduate School, for example, provided between $10,000 and $20,000 per year to help subsidize tuition of children of graduate students; faculty served on the Board of Directors and lent expertise in various areas; students worked in the Center. For the first 15 years of its existence, enrollment was open only to faculty of St. Mary's and Notre Dame. In the mid-1980's low enrollment prompted the Board to expand this opportunity to all employees of Holy Cross institutions and Notre Dame/St. Mary's alumni/ae. In the next few years, the enrollment picture changed dramatically and not only was ECDC fully enrolled, it had a growing waiting list for admittance. By 1993, the waiting list exceeded 150 staff, faculty and student families.

Because I had the opportunity to serve on the ECDC Board of Directors, I was aware of its rapidly growing waiting list but it was also clear that demographic trends and its own popularity and success had brought about a significant change in the composition of the waiting list. Prior to 1990 the waiting list was dominated by children of alums and CSC affiliates but by 1992-93 the waiting list consisted primarily of Notre Dame students and faculty and a small number of staff. Since preference was given to families with children already enrolled in ECDC, new faculty and staff were the least likely to be able to use it. After some conversations with the Provost about the need for an immediate review of the issue, I formed a faculty committee to study the matter and to make appropriate recommendations to the Officers Group. The members of this original committee were Georgine Resick (music), Richard Williams (sociology), Todd Whitmore (theology); we also invited Rita Francis, a graduate student in the college of Science to work with the committee. The beginning seeds of interest in a child care center on the Notre Dame campus were planted in the work of two earlier committees.. The Task Force on Marriage, Family and Other Life Commitments (March 1988) and the Committee on the Status of Women at Notre Dame (January 1989) made recommendations to build an on campus center and to fund the cost of child care within employee benefits. The administration did incorporate several options for provision of tax free or tax exempt child care through flex benefits (Summer 1988).

But at the time, the need for a center was not pressing since the ECDC facility at St. Mary's suited the needs of both institutions. The change in that situation as well as the reports of several Colloquy 2000 committees and the emergence of Give Kids a Chance Coalition, prompted the reevaluation of the problem and the creation of the faculty committee. In the spring of 1992, the faculty committee investigated issues such as the need for child care, liability, fee scales and operator alternatives and it issued a report to the officers of the University that summer. One of its recommendations was for the University to conduct a comprehensive child care needs survey Hewitt Associates was engaged for the project (at a cost of $10,000) and that October 6000 surveys were mailed to faculty, staff, and graduate students. When the results indicated that there was a significant need for an on campus child care program, several staff members joined the faculty committee (Sue Brandt, financial aid; Jesse Huerta, maintenance; Joel Preston, Hessert Center; Liz Rosencrantz, registrar's office) to form a joint task force. This group was to review the survey results and to make recommendations about the desired characteristics of a program. In the winter and spring (1992-93) the task force conducted focus groups in which more than 150 individuals participated; it also did a follow-up survey of approximately 200 individuals who were most likely to use the center. The outcome of the these efforts was a strong preference for the ECDC program and an endorsement to work with ECDC to establish a second branch on the Notre Dame campus.

A proposal for the expansion of the ECDC program to the Notre Dame campus was sent to the ECDC Board. Included in the proposal was a request to accept children younger than 2 and to expand the number of weeks per year and hours per day the center would operate. For its part, the ECDC Board had already been meeting weekly for well over a semester to address the growing demands on its program and plant. Indeed, the Board, had, almost two years earlier, forwarded a similar proposal to Notre Dame for consideration. When the ECDC Board and Notre Dame had reached an agreement in principle, Father Malloy asked to make an announcement of that at the President's dinner in May, 1993. But one member of the ECDC Board would not give consent until all details were clearly specified in a written contract. That was accomplished in July of 1993 and the announcement sent to the Notre Dame community in August 1993. Work on the facility began immediately and the building was completed in August 1994. It opened with a full enrollment just a few weeks later.

The facility on Bulla Road was built by the University at a cost of $1.8 million dollars. The terms of the agreement call for Notre Dame to own, maintain, and pay utilities of the building while renting the facility to ECDC for $1. a year. It also provided $25,000 toward the cost of a new bus for field trips and $55,000 in start-up costs. The cost of the program is tied to a sliding fee schedule based on income. It was anticipated that the fee scale would have to be buttressed by a subsidy from the University for the first two years of operation. In fact, the University's subsidy over the past 6 years has doubled. This is part of the University's ongoing commitment to make ECDC available to all members of the Notre Dame community. Features such as the sliding fee scale, the 49 week schedule and the expanded hours of operation (all of which add to operating expenses) go a long way towards making it an excellent, attractive and accessible facility for all faculty, staff and students with children.

The relative speed with which this entire project was accomplished should not be overlooked. The original faculty committee began its work in early spring of 1992 and the new facility opened its doors in the fall of 1994. It required a tremendous amount of effort and sacrifice on the part of many individuals to make this dream come true. In addition to the persons named above, a special word of recognition mut be given to Terri Kosik, Director of ECDC, and Jennifer Warlick, ECDC Board and Notre Dame faculty member. They spent untold hours hammering out budgets and sliding fee scales, interviewing and hiring staff; obtaining licenses and approval by outside agencies; and arranging schedules, calendar, and menus. Many families will benefit from their work and from ECDC's superb program for many years to come.

In comparison to other projects at Notre Dame, ECDC may seem like a small one but I believe it was one of the most important. The peace of mind that it brings to parents who know their children are being well cared for is a priceless asset. Moreover, the center is a reaffirmation to Notre Dame's commitment to family values and to its Catholic identity.

Some further comments from another early ECDC supporter
The previous history of the gorgeous, state-of-the-art, ECDC center on the edge of the ND campus is most accurate. But let me add a few words about the pre-history — about how, in the late 1980's, our desperation over the child care situation in South Bend provoked political action by faculty and staff, most of whom were in various states of pregnancy, or caring for infants, or sending toddlers off to private-home day care centers (the best were safe, warm places to watch TV). THE STORY IS INSTRUCTIVE.

In 1985, during his annual address to the Faculty Senate, President Theodore Hesburgh, stated that Notre Dame's child care policy was to simply provide sufficient wages with which families could buy their own. In other words, ND's child care policy was the same as ND's grocery and automobile policy - the marketplace was presumed to meet our needs. However, Indiana's standards for private child care centers was among the nation's worst. The only effective regulation seem to concern fire safety. Child care workers were paid less than parking lot attendants and football concession workers. A shining star in this otherwise desolate arena was the St. Mary's ECDC center, whose waiting list was a mile long.

Before Kathleen Cannon was hired, and before she was given the task to get a center on campus — a task which she conducted with deliberation and care - we parents had to find ways to make our voices heard. In 1985, female faculty, an obvious natural interest group, were as scarce as hen's teeth at the University of Notre Dame. However, we (mostly women) formed the Give Kids A Chance Coalition, which engaged in guerilla theater, public hearings, and research while working through official channels — the Task Force on Marriage, Family and Other Life Commitments (March 1988) and the Committee on the Status of Women at Notre Dame (January 1989) — to correct the situation. At our afternoon meetings (at a faculty member's house where kids could play and squirm) we planned a series of "Meet Our Kids Days", a publicity and fund-raising strategy. On various days throughout the year, but especially on football weekends, we brought our kids to campus and marched with them all over - but especially to the administration building and into mobbed cafeterias. We also had a fundraising booth at one of the student's annual carnivals and we collected donations of toys and games in boxes around the then fairly new Decio faculty office building.

As the pressure built, the administration first floated the idea that they would contract out child care services to a private, for-profit center (one that provides services to Memorial Hospital workers.) But early one morning, Richard Williams, an assistant professor Dad, took off for Indianapolis, where, in a dingy government office he found the documentation that this for-profit child care center had high rates of staff turnover, numerous health code violations, and often tolerated staff to child ratios that exceeded legal limits. That same day, he brought back the findings (seven hours of driving) to the special committee considering the center. Soon afterwards, ND agreed to build their own center on terms consistent with the Give Our Kid's a Chance Coalition's blueprint, which stated that the center's workers would be well paid; that staff-child ratios would exceed state standards, and importantly, that fees for parents would be on a sliding scale.

As the Administration had argued, and we acknowledged, the center would have to be subsidized by the University, reflecting the cold sad economics of caring in this country, i.e., that decent caring services are not affordable by many of the people who need it most. Initially, the University said the subsidy would last for two years. I feel they knew then that the cost to the University would only grow — as it has.

It took five years, from the formation of the Give our Kid's A Chance Coalition to the opening of the ECDC building. By that time, most of the initiating faculty's children were too old to attend, or were in other places. But, it was worth the struggle and worth waiting for. Notre Dame's financial commitment to subsidize lower income users and to pay for top-notch staff makes ECDC an unusual high-quality and affordable child care center, and we are grateful for it.

The last task of the Give Our Kid's A Chance Coalition was to collect money for a bouquet of flowers for Kathleen Cannon. And that is the story of how some problems get solved at Notre Dame.

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Early Childcare Development Center, Inc. (ECDC)
18680 Bulla Road, Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 631-3344

ECDC, founded in 1971, is a nonprofit, licensed child care center partially funded by the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College. Both full and part time programs are provided at two sites--one at Saint Mary's College and one on the Notre Dame campus. Both sites are governed by one board of directors and operate with the same philosophy, curriculum, parent involvement and college student involvement. Both sites are staffed by teachers educated and experienced in child development and early childhood education.

ECDC enrolls children with differing social and ethnic backgrounds from the Saint Mary's and Notre Dame communities. ECDC is committed to providing all children enrolled with multicultural curriculum and experiences. ECDC welcomes students of any race, color, religion, gender, and national or ethnic origin.

Programs:
ECDC, Inc. at Saint Mary's College, Havican Hall
· Ages 3 through 6 during the 35-week school year program
· Ages 3 through 9 during the 8-week summer day camp program
· Hours - 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

ECDC, Inc. at Notre Dame, Bulla Road
· Ages 2 through 6 during the 35-week school year program
· Ages 2 through 9 during the 8-week summer day camp program
· Hours - 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

Eligibility:
At least one parent must be affiliated with the University of Notre Dame or Saint Mary's College (i.e. administration, faculty, staff, student or alumni), or an employee of the Holy Cross Order Community.

ECDC-ND Tuition Schedule: please see the ECDC website at http://www.nd.edu/~hr/oef_child_parent_ecdc.shtml

ECDC-SMC Scholarships
SMC students and SMC staff with financial need may apply for scholarships funded by Saint Mary's College. ND graduate students with financial need may apply for scholarships funded by the University of Notre Dame. Families with documented financial need, not affiliated in one of the three categories listed above, may apply for
scholarship assistance through the ECDC board of directors. If you are interested in further information regarding scholarships or need an application for one of the scholarships described above (i.e. SMC, ND or ECDC Board Scholarship), please contact Terri Kosik, Executive Director, at 631-3345.

Planning early for enrollment
The November/December before your child turns 2 years old, call ECDC (631-3344) to be placed on their mailing list. In January, a parent
information packet will be mailed to you. It describes ECDC, the programs, the classrooms, teachers, and the like. It also describes parent meetings and the enrollment process.

If your child will be 2.5 years old by the beginning of the summer, he/she can be enrolled in the summer program. Registration for the summer program is due March 1st. Information (including registration forms) about this program is mailed in February.

If your child will be 2 years old by the Fall, he/she can be enrolled in
the school-year program. Registration for the school-year program is due April 1st. Information (including registration forms) about this program is mailed in March. Notification of confirmed enrollment is given May 1st.

There is a $25 registration fee.

All the registration forms and fees collected by April 1st are used to
create an enrollment list. For the two-year-old classroom, there is room
for 15 children. If there are more than 15 children on the enrollment
list, positions are filled through a lottery (each child is assigned a
number and numbers are randomly chosen until the positions are filled).

Families with children already enrolled at ECDC will receive first
priority for the positions. The priorities then move through the list as
described elsewhere in this section.

Advice given from staff at ECDC is to be flexible in terms of the schedule required for your child's enrollment. It may be harder to enroll your child for an all-day, every-day schedule relative to a MWF morning
schedule (for example). Once you get into ECDC, you will receive the
highest priority for enrollment the next year. So getting your (child's)
foot in the door helps tremendously for future enrollment.

After all classroom positions are filled, a waiting list is formed. The
2001-02 waiting list for the 2-year-old classroom contained approximately 35 names. It is highly unlikely that the entire classroom enrollment would turnover twice to allow Name 35 to be enrolled. But you are notified of your wait-list position so that you can find other childcare alternatives if your number is high.

Enrollment Process at ECDC-ND
1) A random selection process (lottery) is used providing current ECDC families with first priority.

2) The second enrollment priority at ECDC-ND is given ND faculty, staff and student families.

3) The third enrollment priority at ECDC-ND is given to SMC faculty, staff and student families.

4) Fourth enrollment priority at ECDC-ND is given to ND alum families.

5) Fifth enrollment priority at ECDC-ND is given to SMC alum families.

6) Last enrollment priority at ECDC-ND is given to staff members of a Holy Cross Institutions.

Families from the Michiana community are not eligible to enroll children in the ECDC-ND program.

Enrollment Process at ECDC-SMC
1) A random selection process (lottery) is used providing current ECDC families with first priority.

2) The second enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given SMC faculty, staff and student families.

3) The third enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given to ND faculty, staff and student families.

4) Fourth enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given to SMC alum families.
5) Fifth enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given to ND alum families.

6) Sixth enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given to staff members of a Holy Cross Institutions.

7) Last enrollment priority at ECDC-SMC is given to families from the
outside community.

ECDC-SMC & ECDC-ND registration selection process
A. A random selection process within each Priority Category, beginning with Category #1, will be used to fill available openings. Selection will proceed in order through the respective Priority Categories identified in I above (either ECDC-SMC or ECDC-ND) moving to a lower Priority only after children in a higher Priority Category have been enrolled, if openings exist and requested schedules are available.

B. Children not successfully registered as a result of the selection process will automatically be placed on the appropriate activity room Waiting List according to their position or standing (e.g., First, Fifth, etc.) resulting from the random selection process within each Priority Category. Families placed on a Waiting List will be notified promptly and their Registration Fee(s) returned.

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