A new childcare center for students and employees could soon be established as part of an initiative that aims to improve student success and accessibility on campus.

During a presentation at an Academic Senate meeting on Tuesday, April 18, Director of Institutional Research and Planning Viviana Unda said the plan to help attract students to El Camino was almost finalized.

The Comprehensive Integrated Plan was created to help students reach success on campus. The current plan is set to be implemented in the fall of 2024 until 2034.

“One thing we don’t have in this plan yet is the support to give to our parent student[s],” Darcie McClelland, Senate President, said.

McClelland said the senate will push the conversation concerning a childcare center on campus to the next meeting held on, Tuesday, May 2.

During the April meeting, Kristie Daniel-DiGregorio, a full-time human development department professor and academic senate member, said they should work with the Associated Students Organization to push for a childcare center for the campus.

“It’s critical to support our students,” Daniel-Digregorio said.

Daniel-Digregorio said a childcare center can draw new students in, support them and allow the child development students to have hands-on experience on campus.

“Ideally it would be pushed for students and faculty,” Daniel-Digregorio said.

Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Erica Brenes said she used to allow students to bring their kids to her classroom but the campus is not supposed to let professors do that.

“This is a good way to make positive relationships with the community,” Brenes said.

Also a Puente English professor, Brenes said it’s hard for student parents to do personal things that children don’t need to be involved in.

For example, if a parent needs to speak with a therapist and they do not have childcare, the child will have to sit in during the parent’s sessions.

Daniel-DiGregorio said when she was a parent she couldn’t work full-time because she had to make time for her children.

“We have lost so many good students because we are missing that essential element of support,” Daniel-DiGregorio