Loyola’s day care center recently implemented a non-refundable $25 fee for parents to put their child on the center’s waiting list.

Robyn Oubre, the Whelan Children’s Center’s director of administration, offered reasons to support the fee.

“It would allow us to use less hours to maintain the waiting list,” Oubre said.

The center’s staff updates the lists monthly in case a child moves into the next age group. The child’s spot in the new age group list is then dependent on when the parents first applied.

The fee would make parents consider the center more seriously, minimizing the waitlist to only those who consider the center as their top choice, Oubre said. The center calls every six months to confirm the parents’ interest to remain on the list. In previous years, the center’s waiting list has averaged up to 200 names.

Tracy McLendon, a financial aid counselor, has a seven-month-old child already in the center.

“I don’t think that they’re asking for too much. Maybe they could use the money to provide more educational toys for the children,” McLendon said.

Oubre believes the staff should be able to pay more attention to children than an over-sized list with many parents who decline available spots.

Prior to the new policy, the staff would “go through the first 60 on the list (and the parents) decline the spot,” Oubre said.

“And we’re losing revenue in the meantime trying to fill the spot.”
 “Our main focus here is the children,” Oubre said.

English professor Jennifer Jeanfreau sees the new policy as standard for the child care center.

“Maintaining a facility of that quality, with such low student/teacher ratios, for example, is costly,” Jeanfreau said.

Jeanfreau has had her child on the waiting list for two weeks.
Parents registered on the wait list before the fee came into effect are also required to pay the fee.

Parents will still keep their original place on the waiting list.

The waiting list is set on a tiered system. Priority spots are for faculty, staff, and students.
Remaining spots are then available for the alumni community.

Trish Del Nero is a parent who is undergoing the waiting list process for the second time.
“(My daughter) had been on the wait list for about two years,” she said.

Del Nero hopes her second child, Henry, will have a space available in the pre-school category by next fall.

Oubre said the center is an asset to the Loyola community that allows parents “to focus more on their studies or work.”

 “Their children are in a loving, caring environment (where) they’re being well taken care of,” Oubre said.

Monica Vo can be reached at
[email protected]