Corporation Approves Funding for Day-Care

Applications are now available for the Harvard Yard Day-Care Center-the first day-care center to receive financial support from Harvard-which opens June 21.

The Corporation voted on April 19 to give the Harvard Yard group free use of space in the basement of Memorial Chuch. Janitorial services, heat, and utilities will also be provided by Harvard.

The University's contribution amounts to about 18 per cent of the Center's budget, according to Kathleen D. Sylva, secretary of the Harvad group.

The Center will care for about 25 children between the ages of two-and-a-half and five during the summer and will expand to include 30 children in the fall. Infants will also be included in the fall program.

At least one-third of the center's places are being reserved for children of Harvard employees. The rest will be filled by children of Harvard-Radcliffe students and faculty.

Tuition is $30 per week for full-time care and $20 for half-time care.

In addition to the tuition fee, parents will be expected to volunteer three hours of time to the center each week and to participate in planning meetings.

"This arrangement helps to reduce the cost of day-care, but it is also central to our philosophy that the best day-care will involve parents at every stage of planning and operation." Elizabeth E. Mahnke, one of the organizers of the Harvard Yard Center, explained.

The Graduate Women's Organization is providing additional financial support for graduate students who cannot afford day-care, but no funds have been made available so far for employees.

Employees may be discouraged by the tuition fee. "Several employees have told us they can afford only $10 a week," Sylva said.

"Without some subsidies from Harvard, I'm afraid we're going to have exclusively graduate students, and I think this would be a disaster," Mahnke add-ed. "Harvard is thinking of this as a pilot center, and it might become a model for having separate day-care facilities for separate groups within the University."

Edward S. Gruson, assistant to the President for Community Affairs, agreed that the Administration viewed the Harvard Yard Center as "an experiment in University day-care," but did not think it would set an "exclusive precedent."

"The Corporation has granted the use of space for a year, and I think at the end of that year, they'll want to look at what's been done, and to see what's good about it and what isn't," Gruson said.

The Harvard Yard Center was organized by parents in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. It is the first parent-initiated day-care center in the University.

Applications for places in the Harvard Yard Center are available at the Harvard Information Office in Holyoke Center.