Student Parents

Did you know that approximately 20% of UM graduate and professional students are parents? CEW has long been an advocate for students with children, most recently through its leadership of the Committee on Student Parent Issues and its successor, the Student Parent Policy Committee. Between April 2002 and April 2007, these university-wide committees worked to address several key barriers to success experienced by UM students with children. Now that formal committee work is done, CEW continues to collaborate informally with other student parent advocates such as the Work/Life Resource Center and Rackham Graduate School.

Through these committees, CEW contributed to the following outcomes:

Created the Students with Children website, which pulls together in one place resources related to the financial, social, child care, housing, academic, health care, health insurance, and parenting needs of student parents.
Developed UM’s Campus Child Care Homes Network of state-licensed, home-based child care providers. This innovative program dramatically increased the number of quality, affordable child care openings in and near North Campus family housing. By caring for infants and toddlers as well as preschoolers, and being flexible about scheduling outside of traditional 7 am-6 pm hours, these providers offer services that are largely unavailable through the University’s child care centers.
Recommended more part-time enrollment options for UM graduate and professional students who must work to support their families.
Developed an estimate of the percentage of students with children (approximately 20%) based on two surveys of all UM graduate and professional students, as well as undergraduates whose FAFSA forms indicated they had a dependent. Other information collected by the surveys included types of child care used and preferred, hours worked by the student and any spouse/partner, residential location and other factors informative to those who serve UM’s student parent population.
Urged UM schools and colleges to develop additional financial aid resources that can be used by student parents to pay for the living expenses of their dependents. Since almost all financial aid is designed to meet only the needs of the student, student parents struggle to pay for the needs of their families. Existing child care subsidies/grants are a partial solution, but additional need-based aid is still needed.
Supported creation of a policy for paid parental leave for graduate student parents. This proposal, written by the President’s Advisory Commission on Women’s Issues (PACWI), was adopted by the Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
Expanded the number of UM bathrooms with diaper changing tables and “Personal rooms” for lactation. University architects’ guidelines now include the need to evaluate the incorporation of “personal rooms” during the programming phase of a project, based on the use and needs of the building’s users.