October 10, 2016

Purdue University Early Care and Education Center to celebrate grand opening with open house on Friday

Purdue will celebrate the grand opening of the Purdue University Early Care and Education Center on Friday (Oct. 14) as the University's family-friendly Homecoming Weekend begins.

The new child care center will open its doors to the community with tours and refreshments from 3 to 6 p.m. following an invitation-only dedication of the Morris Levy Playground at 2:30 p.m.

The new $5.3 million, 16,400-square-foot child care facility will serve children ages 6 weeks to 12 years with 116 of the 140 available spaces dedicated to preschool-age children.

Trent Klingerman, vice president for human resources, says the center is the result of public-private partnerships and persistence, and the playground ceremony pays tribute to the dedication of the project's champion.

"The playground has been named in honor of Professor Morris "Morry" Levy … in appreciation of his leadership and tireless work in establishing and following through on the promises of the Child Care Task Force, which Professor Levy convened during his tenure as chair of the University Senate," Klingerman says. "Professor Levy's vision and determination were instrumental in making the Purdue University Early Care and Education Center a reality for Purdue families, and it is with pleasure that we dedicate the Morris Levy Playground."

Levy, who is nearing 44 years as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences, emphasized improving employees' quality of life in the workplace as top priority as he began his tenure as Senate chair in 2011 -- especially the needed expansion of day care facilities. He insisted that the expansion would be a force in the recruitment and retention of quality employees and students.

"Having my name associated with this project is a profound honor, and I'm grateful to the many Purdue colleagues whose efforts led to today," Levy says. "Expanding Purdue's day care facilities is a positive investment that will pay for itself in the long run and is essential for recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff, as well as graduate students, with families. Cheers to everyone who made this facility possible, and to the greater Purdue community who will receive its benefits in the future."

Under Levy's leadership, the Senate and Office of the Provost Child Care Task Force, which included faculty, staff, Purdue Graduate Student Government and administration from the West Lafayette campus, evaluated the state of child care at Purdue. Their findings, based in part on a campus-wide survey conducted in spring 2013, were issued in October 2014 and revealed that those with children in Purdue child care at that time were satisfied or very satisfied with the level of care, but that additional capacity was needed.

"The Purdue Child Care Task Force did outstanding work to examine child care needs on campus, and among its recommendations, supported by members of the University Senate, was a call for additional quality child care options that were affordable," President Mitch Daniels said during the groundbreaking in September 2015.

The new center, built on Dexter Lane facing Horticulture Park, provides a 63 percent increase in the full-time child care capacity on campus, bringing Purdue to the midpoint of capacity at other Big Ten and peer institutions.

Modeled after Purdue's Patty Jischke Early Care and Education Center, the new facility features a 20,000-square-foot natural playground area and additional indoor spaces dedicated to enhanced programming and indoor play.

With the grand opening of the center, Purdue adds to on-campus care for infant through preschool-age children on the West Lafayette campus at the Ben & Maxine Miller Child Development Lab School, Patty Jischke Early Care and Education Center, and Purdue Village Preschool, representing a total of 212 full-time slots. Each of those centers are operating at 100 percent capacity.

The Children's Creative Learning Centers LLC, which manages the Patty Jischke Early Care and Education Center, was selected to manage the new facility.

The Purdue Research Foundation,  an independent organization that acts for the University's benefit, owns the new center and will lease it to the University for a 20-year term.

More information about the Purdue University Early Care and Education Center is available by contacting Kim Rule, center director, at 765-743-3250. 


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