The University should provide a free childcare system on campus for students who have children.
As I sat in my economics class in Dodson Hall, I heard a baby crying. It wasn’t a very loud cry, but what caught my attention was the professor.
He loudly said to the woman, “You need to leave. LSU has policies about this.”
He said this to her three separate times throughout the lecture, and each time she ignored him and continued to take notes.
After the third time, he said, “This reminds me of a junior high classroom.”
I’m assuming he was joking about teen pregnancy. He didn’t seem to have any empathy for this woman, who probably had no other choice but to bring her child to class.
Although my professor yelling at the woman about LSU’s policies was intimidating, I was unable to find any actual policies about this. Professors should be allowed to tell whomever they want to leave their classrooms, but in this case, it can be assumed there was no other place for her to bring her child.
If there was an affordable place that would take care of students’ children on campus, the woman would have no excuse for bringing her child to class.
Just because a student has a child, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve an education. Not everyone can afford quality childcare, and unfortunately, it’s clear not all professors allow children in their classrooms.
Early Childhood Education Laboratory Preschool is the childcare the University offers on campus. For full-time students, the cost is $866 a month for infants and children up to 2-years-old; $834 a month for 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds; and $795 for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. Those prices exclude a $250 registration fee, a $300 materials and technology fee and a $100 building fee.
If a parent is bringing their child to class rather than enrolling them in preschool on campus, they probably cannot afford it. Parents in school are trying to further their education and thus have less time to earn the necessary money to pay for daycare. Childcare is expensive, but it shouldn’t be for someone who is already paying tuition.
The University is a state school which is funded by the government or outside donations. The government should include a childcare system in this funding.
About 46% of children in Baton Rouge come from single-parent households, and more single parents would want to get an education if they knew they didn’t have to also pay for childcare. Less student-parents would be forced to drop out to watch their children or to work to afford childcare.
Ashlon Lusk is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Houston, Texas.
