As of August 19, the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) will no longer be a part of the CSU East Bay community.
The ECEC is an on-campus preschool that provides programs and services for infants, toddlers and preschool children on the Hayward campus, but its existence at CSUEB will cease to exist this month.
According to Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) representatives, excessive costs and low enrollment rates have impelled ASI to reaffirm where student fees are being improperly used and as a result of unsuccessful contracts, the ECEC will be gone after ten years at its current site.
“In the end, everyone was losing money,” said ASI Executive Director Randy Saffold. “I asked, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Well because, it really was a unique relationship and collaboration that was praised by many, but that isn’t a strong enough reason to keep allowing CSUEB students from losing money for a program that was hardly being utilized.”
For the past two years, over $300,000 has been lost due to a contract with Child Family Community Services (CFCS) that required ASI to pay for empty slots in enrollment and high admission costs, according to Saffold.
Simply, it was a “horrible” contract for CSUEB students to be locked into and in an effort to better utilize student fees for student benefits, the daycare was no longer worth the costs, according to Saffold.
“This just wasn’t a smart way to spend money, and it’s definitely not fair for students,” said Saffold. “We definitely offer our condolences to [the parents using the program], but we have to think of what’s best for CSUEB as a whole.”
A vast majority of the people utilizing the daycare on campus were neither enrolled CSUEB students nor faculty and staff. As only 25 of those utilizing the center were from CSUEB the center was not serving its main purpose of aiding parent-students.
It is not clear as to how people who were not part of the CSUEB community utilized the ASI program for so long unnoticed, as ECEC supervisors and directors denied commenting on the matter.
Yet Saffold believes that although it would have been preferable to work out a better contract with CFCS, this is the right step in terms of budgeting and spending for ASI student fees.
For parents such as Tamika Clay, who has been using the daycare service for her son Heir for over a year and a half, the immense help it has provided her in continuing her education at CSUEB will be missed and lamented.
“It’s really sad to see it close,” said Clay. “All of us parents, we got really close and stuck together through the years. Overall, I was very happy with the program.”
“It helped my family and my education,” she continued. “It’s too bad other parents won’t be able to utilize the services on campus anymore.”
According to ASI executive assistant, Lil Brown-Parker, though the day-care will no longer be on CSUEB premises, it will be relocating to a different location nearby in Hayward.
Furthermore, ASI has provided current parents multiple resources for their childcare alternatives, she said.
“We will do whatever we can to help through this situation,” said Parker. “We offer our sympathies and we want them to know we are here for them.”
Though, for Saffold, the main effect it will have for CSUEB students is much more positive than it seems, as their money can now be used properly and wisely on programs that truly benefit a greater majority of students.
“We just want to think in terms of the greater good for our students,” said Saffold. “We owe it to our students to be thinking about what’s best for them.”
