Will the now common sight of young children parading across campus soon be no more? As the transformation of the UWS campus continues apace, it seems an inevitable result.

In the coming year, options for on-campus child care will begin to vanish as New Horizons Children’s Center is forced to vacate the soon to be leveled Sundquist Hall. As faculty offices, the Writing Center and other University functions move to the newly constructed Swenson Hall, the privately owned childcare center will be left without a building to call home - and 20 full time employees will be left without jobs.

“It seems like everyone has a place to go except us,” says New Horizons owner Cindy Fennessy.

Fennessy says the University has informed her that according to current demolition plans, the childcare center occupying the whole of the lower floor of Sundquist Hall must be out by October 1st , 2011. The departure of New Horizons will leave the Y.M.C.A. facility in Hawkes Hall as the sole option for staff, faculty and student families in need of on-campus childcare. But that option too will quickly vanish, as renovation plans for Hawkes Hall will force out the Y.M.C.A. center just a few months later, in the Spring of 2012.

While neither New Horizons nor the Y.M.C.A. center is directly affiliated with the University, UWS does offer a stipend for full-time students supplementing the weekly costs of on-campus childcare. Fennessy approximates some ten percent of her current group are the children of staff, faculty and students at UWS - add in WITC, says Fennessy, and that number doubles to twenty percent.

New Horizons, and the previous occupant of the lower floor of Sundquist, University Children Care Center, have been more than just a place to get professional childcare for working parents on-campus, these facilities have been a resource for University students and faculty working and studying in fields like early-childhood education, music and psychology. Over the years, says center Director Amy Benson, New Horizons has hosted a number of students interested in observation, training and research involving young children.

“In the five years we have been open, we have been able to provide a lot of Practicum students (from the Early Childhood Education program at WITC) with a paid internship,” says Benson, “and some of those students ended up in a full-time position when they graduated.”

Fennessey believes the departure of New Horizons and the YMCA childcare center will have more than just a negative impact on campus life. “It’s going to impact jobs. It’s going to impact local childcare. It’s going to impact our community.”

Director Benson agrees. “We have two colleges, right here, within a block. And our relationship has been a benefit to all involved. I see it benefiting us as an employer. I see it benefitting students. I see it benefiting professors and classes.”

Benson also has seen a different kind of relationship between campus and childcare. “I look at some of the other major universities in the area, and its different,” she says.

In the summer of 2009, Benson and Fennessey toured the newly built childcare center at UW-Riverfalls. “They have a new childcare center, right there, on campus,” says Benson, “and they employ a lot more students.” While New Horizon’s two executives point out that the UW-Riverfalls center is directly affiliated with the university, it is the general benefits of on-campus childcare working closely with the university community they noticed. “Its too bad Superior doesn’t see it like that,” says Fennessey.

While New Horizons has adapted to moves in the past - they moved from Ross Hall just last September, combining two centers into one  - Fennessey says this time it’s different. “It’s been difficult”, she says.

“I didn’t think I’d have as hard of a time finding a place. I have intent to build (a new center)”, says Fennessey, “but I can’t get financing right now.” “Its been tough to find places,” she says, “I need more than just the center. I need an outdoor area for kids to play. I need parking space for the staff.”

Fennessey has successfully completed an application for a federal Small Business Loan, but as part of that process she needs a bank to sponsor her loan through the program, and in this climate of financial uncertainty, she has so far been unable to attract a sponsor. “The banks don’t want to touch it,” she says. “At first,” Fennessey continues, “I thought it was just me, but banks just don’t want to lend.” Fennessey thinks banks don’t see the childcare industry as “a big money maker”, and calls her search for a new location and financing “a viscous cycle.”

“A 2x4 in a childcare center costs the same as a 2x4 for anything else you’re building,” quips Fennessey, “the banks just don’t see it that way.”

But despite the uncertainty, Fennessey, a life-long Superior resident, is not about to give up. “I love it, I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t doing this,” she says. But she is worried about the short-term impact of the closing of two childcare centers on local families and children. Benson and Fennessey estimate there are just 7 major childcare centers in Superior. “So”, says Benson, “if two go out, that leaves only five. It’s not like all the other centers will be able to easily absorb all of these kids.”

It is the same for her employees, says Benson: “There’s no other place to go. There are just no other centers that are hiring right now.” 

Thus, says Fennessey, “it’s not only that the university will be losing, it’s the whole community.”