A committee headed by Dan Layzell, vice president for Finance and Administration, convened last fall to discuss transferring the University’s Child Care Center from Auxiliary Services to another operator. In early May, the committee decided to house the Center under the College of Human Sciences and Education.
After deciding on a bid, the transfer to CHSE brought about changes that have affected the Center’s day-to-day operations.
“We were looking at this as an important service that we provide for our faculty, staff and students who have children, but it’s really not our core mission,” Layzell said. “It might make sense for us to partner with an outside organization that has expertise in running these kinds of facilities on college and university campuses.”
The process with the creation of a committee of on-campus experts, parents and the Center’s management. The committee then solicited proposals from outside organizations to be considered.
The criteria for consideration were expertise and experience with handling similar centers on other college campuses. The committee also looked at the salaries and benefits the organizations pay to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff and the ways in which the organizations could enhance opportunities for students and staff, Layzell said.
“We’re bringing somebody in to be a partner with the University, not just a vendor,” he said of the proposals.
While one proposal did meet the criteria posed by the committee, members decided that outsourcing the job would not be best for the Center.
German assistant professor Gundela Hachmann, the parent of a child at the Center, was a committee member representing the University’s Faculty Senate.
“The committee reviewed, very thoroughly, and discussed the offers that were available and the committee decided that these offers were not what we wanted for LSU,” Hachmann said.
After that decision, a separate committee was formed to evaluate the bid presented by CHSE, which already houses the LSU Child Development Laboratory Preschool and University Laboratory School.
Not only did CHSE offer expertise in the field, operating two other on-campus learning environments, but taking control of the Center would also create research opportunities for students studying early childhood education.
The transfer to CHSE brought many efficiencies in the consolidation of the Child Development Laboratory Preschool and the Child Care Center, Layzell said.
Because the Center had been without a director for some time, appointing the Child Development Laboratory Preschool’s director and staff resources to take over the operation allowed the Center to have more direction, Hachmann said.
In addition, new teachers have been recruited, and renovations have been made to the facilities.
“It’s not just superficial changes,” Hachmann said. “They’re also changing the way they think about the education, the way that they want to teach the children. They’re doing extensive training for the staff that is there … so all of these things are really good, positive changes.”