"Everyone with children has to deal with that.”
posted by bitchphd
From Inside Higher Ed, the University of Memphis now has a "policy that prohibits employees and students from regularly bringing their children on campus." I gotta say, as a parent, it's especially annoying that it's dressed up in this whole "for the safety of the kids" thing, that always gets trotted out when someone wants to tell you your kid is annoying them.
More to the point: apparently the university doesn't have childcare for its employees--but the University school that many of those employee's children attend lets out at 2:30. The university's answer to this is that "every employee is responsible for making childcare arrangements that conform with this policy"--I don't need to point out how inane it is to acknowledge that this is a widespread problem, only to turn around and say "figure it out, people." And students are prohibited from bringing kids to class at all.
Now, look. Yes, it could be disruptive if a student or an instructor regularly brought a child to class. Then again, when my mother was getting her degree, she regularly brought me--I think I was probably seven or eight at the time--and I would pretty much sit quietly in a desk and read, or draw, or listen to the lectures. If a kid is disruptive, then that's a problem (as is any regular disruption to a class)--but not all children are necessarily disruptive, and there is a case to be made that an educational environment is actually an *excellent* place for parents to bring children on occasion.
Apparently the university was having problems with unsupervised kids running around campus. Again, I can see how this could be a problem; on the other hand, one of the things I've always liked about college campuses is that they're pretty open for people to just wander in and out of and use the green spaces, on occasion, as public parks. I used to regularly picnic with Pseudonymous Kid in a couple of nice green patches when I was in graduate school, and while he was never unsupervised--being about a year old--I can easily see telling a fourteen or fifteen year old kid to just go to the university library and read or do homework after school until my last class gets out at, say, 4:30.
I'd like to think that a campus, unlike an office building, could be a welcoming and engaging place for all members of the campus community, including their families. I, for one, enjoy seeing kids on campus, and ime most people, faculty and students alike, seem to as well. It's a way of acknowledging that campus life is precisely that--that a college campus is more than just a workplace. Banning kids from campus except for emergencies and special events strikes me as Scroogelike and draconian, and if I were on the faculty at the University of Memphis I would be mighty displeased.
Bottom line: if you're a large employer--according to their web site the University of Memphis has over 2,400 employees--and you don't provide daycare, then expect employees to bring kids to the office. If you don't like that, then expect your employees to go home when their kids get out of school.
More to the point: apparently the university doesn't have childcare for its employees--but the University school that many of those employee's children attend lets out at 2:30. The university's answer to this is that "every employee is responsible for making childcare arrangements that conform with this policy"--I don't need to point out how inane it is to acknowledge that this is a widespread problem, only to turn around and say "figure it out, people." And students are prohibited from bringing kids to class at all.
Now, look. Yes, it could be disruptive if a student or an instructor regularly brought a child to class. Then again, when my mother was getting her degree, she regularly brought me--I think I was probably seven or eight at the time--and I would pretty much sit quietly in a desk and read, or draw, or listen to the lectures. If a kid is disruptive, then that's a problem (as is any regular disruption to a class)--but not all children are necessarily disruptive, and there is a case to be made that an educational environment is actually an *excellent* place for parents to bring children on occasion.
Apparently the university was having problems with unsupervised kids running around campus. Again, I can see how this could be a problem; on the other hand, one of the things I've always liked about college campuses is that they're pretty open for people to just wander in and out of and use the green spaces, on occasion, as public parks. I used to regularly picnic with Pseudonymous Kid in a couple of nice green patches when I was in graduate school, and while he was never unsupervised--being about a year old--I can easily see telling a fourteen or fifteen year old kid to just go to the university library and read or do homework after school until my last class gets out at, say, 4:30.
I'd like to think that a campus, unlike an office building, could be a welcoming and engaging place for all members of the campus community, including their families. I, for one, enjoy seeing kids on campus, and ime most people, faculty and students alike, seem to as well. It's a way of acknowledging that campus life is precisely that--that a college campus is more than just a workplace. Banning kids from campus except for emergencies and special events strikes me as Scroogelike and draconian, and if I were on the faculty at the University of Memphis I would be mighty displeased.
Bottom line: if you're a large employer--according to their web site the University of Memphis has over 2,400 employees--and you don't provide daycare, then expect employees to bring kids to the office. If you don't like that, then expect your employees to go home when their kids get out of school.
Posted at 2:44 AM
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