Lack of child care funding was an issue of contention at last week's Board of Regents meeting, where faculty members lobbied for an additional $250,000 in the supplemental budget request to expand access to child care.

"The issue of child care funding is one of our top priorities," said Sarah Reyneveld, vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS).

GPSS has continued to petition for more child care funding for graduate and professional students.

Limited access to child care facilities is a major obstacle facing graduate students today, Reyneveld said.

"Lack of adequate childcare services is currently the third barrier to successfully completing a degree," she said.

The process by which students obtain access to University-supported child care facilities involves a thorough application process, where eligible students can apply for child care assistance. This Childcare Voucher program reimburses students for up to 60 percent of their child care costs.

"The waiting list is like 170- something," Reyneveld said. "It's just too long; not even all students who apply can get child care. There is only funding for a limited number of vouchers."

UW alumna Sunshine Eversull had to support two young children in child care after moving to Seattle from Lakewood.

"It was really difficult for me to find child care that I trusted," she said. "I knew no one here."

Eversull did the research and found programs that were on the UW's list of approved daycare centers, but found the costs and bureaucracy behind the application burdensome.

"I found [the UW child care facilities] very helpful, but at the same time there was a lot of bureaucracy that went with it," she said. "You had to be ahead of the game, and I know that a lot of parents didn't particularly care for all of that paperwork."

Each quarter, Eversull needed to produce paperwork for the next three months, proving that she was able to pay her share. If she hadn't been on scholarship, she would not have been able to afford the costs, she said.

"It was a huge expense," she said.

The 2007 supplemental budget request, which also asks for funds for the Safe Campus program, animal research facilities and land acquisition for UW Tacoma, calls for $250,000 in operating costs and $1 million for capital (e.g., building, expenses).

"Of course there's not enough money," UW spokesperson Norm Arkans said.

Reyneveld hopes that graduate students and faculty members can work together to increase funding and access to child care, perhaps even building a Web site to make it easier for parents to find child care.

"I believe that we need to work with the faculty," she said. "We can all work together as this is an issue that is an ongoing concern."

[Reach reporter Arla Shephard at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]