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This has a double impact upon university-based childcare centres: the government funding decreases, yet the universities are struggling under the education cuts, so are reluctant to allocate funding to upgrade or maintain childcare services. The financial restrictions being imposed on universities creates a difficult situation for students demanding that the university improves childcare services. But the absence of childcare directly discriminates against women accessing education: it is mostly women who rely on the provision of childcare, and the absence or inadequacy of childcare services can prevent women from attending university. Furthermore, the childcare services available may not be tailored to suit the specific needs of students, even though it is a university-based service. The recent campaign at Southern Cross University in Lismore, however, showed that it is possible to fight for decent campus based childcare. An effective, pro-active approach to the problem is to establish a student organisation-based childcare working group. The Women's Collective at the university's Student Representative Council established such a group during second semester 1998, in response to a childcare crisis. The university was threatening to close a preschool adjacent to the campus, which was used by the community and students. The "Save Farmhouse Preschool" campaign was successful in uniting students, staff and the community, and raising awareness of the campus childcare issue, including a rally at the university's open day last August. We demanded that adequate childcare be maintained and that there be student input into campus childcare via the Women's Collective's working group. Despite the eventual closure of the preschool, the university was forced to purchase a new childcare centre and mechanisms have been established for student input into its running, with positions for the SRC Women's Officer and student users of the childcare centre on the management and planning committees. Staff of the university are also encouraged to become involved and promote the concerns about work-based childcare. Through united efforts such as this, effective promotion of childcare as a vital component of the university is facilitated, and the student organisation and student users of childcare services can hold the university accountable. If your university fails to provide quality childcare tailored to student's needs at all times, it is not an "equal opportunity" university. All educational institutions and workplaces have a responsibility to provide good quality, accessible childcare: hold them to it.
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Not content with cuts to higher
education, the Coalition federal government is slashing
funding to childcare services.