Duke Opens Doors to $2 Million Expansion of On-Campus Child Care Facility
 DURHAM, N.C. - Duke officials marked the opening of the $2 million expansion of the university's on-campus child care center yesterday evening during a brief ceremony at the facility.
Less than six months after breaking ground, the Duke Children's Campus opened the doors to an expanded facility that doubled the center's capacity for children of faculty, staff and graduate and professional students. The 6,900-square-foot expansion increased the capacity of the center to 153 children, with a majority of the 77 new spaces designated for infants and toddlers. The faculty and staff managing the center have also doubled from 21 to 42.
The expanded facility resulted from an initiative President Nannerl O. Keohane launched last year to study and respond to issues among women at Duke. In spring 2002, Keohane appointed a 16-member Women's Steering Committee to study the experiences of women across Duke and recommend improvements. The expanded child care center was among the first recommendations from the study to be acted upon.
"Almost as soon as the university's Women's Initiative steering committee got rolling 18 months ago, it was clear that one of its most pertinent and urgent recommendations would center not on women directly but on children," said Keohane. "For both women and men at Duke, issues around balancing their professional and domestic lives often converge around child care, particularly for the very young. As the largest employer in the county, the university has an opportunity and obligation to show the way, to demonstrate what can be done when many people work together for the common good."
 As part of the project, the Duke Children's Campus expanded its enrollment options to include part-time care, including half day and partial week (two-day, three-day and four-day) options, of which 17 families now participate. Additional space was also allotted for children of graduate and professional students. Currently, there are 18 children who attend the children's campus while their parents pursue advanced degrees at Duke.
Mindy Kornberg, assistant vice president of Duke Human Resources, Work Environment, who had oversight of the project, said the expansion reflected much more than the addition of "brick and mortar."
"This expansion represents the physical extension of support that has continued to grow and flourish here at Duke for parents who work and study here," she said. "It reflects greater support to help you manage the demands of work and family and to help your children grow and learn within this community."
The Duke Children's Campus, located on Alexander Street at Campus Drive, opened in 1991. The operation moved to the YMCA in downtown Durham in 1997 before returning to the renovated campus site in August 2001.
The facility is managed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which provides work-site child care for more than 480 companies throughout the United States, including SAS, GlaxoSmithKline and IBM in the Triangle.
For more information or to enroll a child, contact Duke Children's Campus by telephone at (919) 684-8644 or by fax at (919) 684-8838. The center's e-mail is
duke@brighthorizons.com; the center's Web site is
www.hr.duke.edu/dcc.
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