Care Package

  MICHAEL JENNINGS Xochitl
Baldivia-Gatmaitan and her mother, Samantha
Gatmaitan, play at the Bellagio Child Care Center.

By Marjorie Hernandez
Daily Bruin Reporter

Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, former 1978 Associated Students of UCLA
Child care Center director, remembers the day when a tipster
informed her about maintenance workers on their way to change the
locks on the center’s doors.

Caught off-guard, Rothstein-Fisch ran to the center to deter the
workers.

“I just remembered screaming, “˜What am I going to
do?'” she said.

Due to the constant struggle to keep the service financially
afloat, the child care center was about to be shut down.

Having convinced the workers that the order to change the locks
was a mistake, Rothstein-Fisch immediately called then-Vice
Chancellor Hal Thompson.

“I explained to him what the center meant to all of those
families and what it meant to those students who had worked so hard
to go to UCLA who were going to have to drop out because they
didn’t have child care,” Rothstein-Fisch said.

This was not the first time the ASUCLA Child care Center was on
the verge of closing its doors, Rothstein-Fisch said.

But this crisis eventually led UCLA to become the first among
the UC schools to create an endowment fund for child care service,
according to June Sale, 1979-93 Executive Director of UCLA Child
care Services.

Since its opening day on April 12, 1971, the center struggled to
maintain proper funding to accommodate the growing child care needs
of students, faculty and staff.

  MICHAEL JENNINGS The Bellagio Child Care center offers a
safe and caring environment for children. Sponsored and partially
funded by ASUCLA and the chancellor’s office, the original
child care center was mandated for a three-year contract in the
former subcultural horticultural building, the site where UCLA
Medical Center now stands.

According to the 1971 ASUCLA Child care Center proposal, more
than 70 percent of working women in the ’70s had children
living at home, which created the need for more child care
facilities. In 1940, by contrast, the number was only 10
percent.

The increase in working mothers and students at UCLA not only
pushed the issue of affordable child care, but also women’s
rights to pursue careers and education, according to
Rothstein-Fisch.

“It was a time of social change and when young people felt
empowered and believed that we had a voice,” Rothstein-Fisch
said.

In its opening year, the center cared for children of UCLA
students, staff and faculty.

As the number of student and working parents increased, the
issue of an accessible and quality child care center on campus
became a highly debated issue. More than 400 families who needed
care were placed on waiting lists, according to a 1974 report from
the center.

In the middle of this debate, the status of child care teachers
also came into light. Though they had master’s degrees and
received some benefits, they sill made less than window washers
during that time, Rothstein-Fisch said.

“I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they
were women and it was seen as baby-sitting.,” she said.
“Even though these people went to world-renowned institutions
and had master’s degrees and were credentialed teachers, it
was still considered glorified baby-sitting at best.”

The lack of funding and space for the center prompted petitions,
letter-writing campaigns and support from students to local
government officials.

Parents, students, faculty and staff also tried to spread the
word around the community by holding small rallies and fund-raisers
to demonstrate the need for child care.

Despite their efforts, an even greater threat ensued when
Chancellor Charles E. Young decided to stop all funding for the
child care center in 1978.

At that point, the ASUCLA Board of Control decided to cease its
share of funding while the Registration Fee Advisory Committee also
reduced their support for the center.

One reason Young called an end to child care resulted from the
passage of Proposition 13, a measure that lowered state property
tax, but in turn also cut funding for schools and other
services.

“I don’t think Chancellor Young was against child
care centers or having one on campus,” said Robert Dahlstedt,
Ventura County deputy public defender and former UCLA president of
graduate students. “I think he was concerned about the
finances and saw it as a bottomless pit.”

Dahlstedt and former undergraduate president Dean Morehous
served as liaisons between the child care officials and the
chancellor’s office to come to an agreement for staff and
basic funding.

Letters supporting the continuation of the child care center
swarmed the chancellor’s office, while a UCLA child care
Study Group devised a proposal to create a self-supporting
center.

At the end of the administrative struggle of 1978, Young agreed
to continue to fund the center, but at reduced levels and along
with more funding from parents and outside sources.

With reduced funding, the child care administration, student
leaders and the parent council had to devise creative ways to
maintain its professional staff while staying within the
budget.

This led to the creation of the endowment fund, and its
accumulation of interest assisted student-parents as another source
of funding.

The endowment continues to support some low-income students who
are not able to obtain state or federal grants, said Gay Macdonald,
current Executive Director of UCLA Child care Services .

Also instituted in 1980 was the Outreach Program, a service that
provides information for parents on the wait list to find other
licensed family child care providers or centers around the
community. The program also provided training on child care for
home care providers.

The outreach program also continues to serve the local
community, helping over 800 families to find resources and
alternative child care, according to Macdonald.

Unlike referral services, the outreach program matches parents
with specific providers and offers support to the outside care
givers.

“The Outreach Program was one of the better things that we
did,” Sale said.” We tried to reach out to others and
to also do something for the whole community, not just
UCLA.”

Despite the long hours of negotiating between the
chancellor’s office and child care proponents, Dahlstedt saw
the experience as a benefit to the UCLA campus.

“I think it was important from a campus perspective that
we have children on campus,” he said. “We do allow
parents to attend our campus, and just because they are parents,
they shouldn’t have any impediments to being a
student.”

He also said having student parents also increases the
diversity of the student body at the university.

The center moved to the Bellagio Center in 1987 as part of the
UCLA Child care Services.

The lives affected and the challenges faced are what
Rothstein-Fisch, now an associate professor of educational
development at California State University, Northridge, looks at
with appreciation and guidance.

“Those lessons that I learned on advocacy and leadership
are exactly how I teach my students in the graduate program of
early childhood education,” she said.

“Those are the two primary things that are the hallmark of
our masters’ program: leadership and advocacy,” she
continued. “And that all comes from all the experiences I had
and the common experiences we had fighting for UCLA child care in
the ’70s”.