CFR Coordinator’s Report
20 February 2013
New CFR Employee: Erika Woosley, a Sr. in Human Development and Family Sciences here at
OSU, started working with us in the office on February 5th. Her current schedule is Tuesday and
Thursday from 9:00 – 1:00 and Friday from 9:00 – 4:30. Erika’s into her 3rd week with us and we
already feel the benefits of having an extra CFR staff person – so glad she’s here! You’ll have an
opportunity to meet her at Friday’s board meeting.
2013-2014 Budgeting Process: FY14 budget was approved by SIFC February 12th during the
Open Hearing. Thank you to those who came and spoke on behalf of the services and supports
provided by CFR. The student fee increased from $4.23/per student per term to $4.38. Out of
15 student fee funded budgets submitted to SIFC this year we were only 1 of 3 who had our
increase in student fees approved. All other budgets either were kept at the same fee as FY13
or cut with some of those cuts up to 50% of their total FY13 budget. Given the climate around
student fee funded programs this year we are fortunate to be moving forward into FY14 with
almost all of our requests met. Several budget related points of discussion for this Friday’s
board meeting will be:
•the $10,000 decrease in Decision Package #2 and the proposed $10,000 spend down in the
fund balance to address this decrease and,
•the process around which those changes were made
Child Care Center: In the January board meeting we briefly talked about the fact that the child
care center, as of July 1, 2013, will be officially on the books of student building inventory.
There has been some confusion about whether this building, built with student building fees,
was the fiscal responsibility of the University and E&G dollars or the students and student fee
money, as is the case with the MU and some other buildings on campus. The particulars of this
development were not ironed out during the budgeting process which means our FY14 budget
does not have any reference to child care center expenditures. This will change once an
independent assessment is made of the building and there is a better idea of maintenance
priorities and associated costs. Once those costs are known we may need to put forth a
Contingency Request to address our need for increased dollars to support the building.
Regarding the current level of University funding at $45,000/year that should remain the same.
And, the current CCLC contribution of $12,500 annually will continue to go into the building
fund.
Building updates – cleaning and sealing of new flooring was completed last month so first phase
of flooring is finished. Outdoor play structure is in and being well-used! The garbage and
recycling enclosure was installed last month. Currently working with a local landscaper for a
proposal to re-do the grounds in the front of building as well as the west side of the property.
Water is now draining toward the building and creating standing water which needs to be
addressed. In addition, one of the large pear trees has grown too close to the building and
many of the original bushes have died and been removed. The work will include removing most
everything, bringing in new top soil, new leveling/grading and then planting grass, shrubs and a
few trees. If you’re interested in more detailed plans please let me know and I’d be happy to
share them. We hope for this work to begin and nearly finish during the week of spring break.
Additional Child Care/PCSOW: The Work Life Balance Subcommittee has finished collecting
information about the cost and availability of child care in the Corvallis community – both
center based care and family providers were contacted. With this information we determined
to move forward with an independent assessment/analysis about University and community
demographics, both current and expected growth, as well as child care availability. Robynn
Pease and I are working together on the initial RFP for that work and will be presenting a draft
to the WLB Subcommittee during our March meeting. We hope to have quick approval of that
draft enabling an April 1st RFP issue date. The WLB Subcommittee was appreciative of SPAB’s
decision to allocate CFR funds which will go toward this assessment.
SR3: As some of you already know, SR3 was able join in on the current Dixon Feasibility Study
which was already underway when the possible inclusion of SR3 emerged. Following a January
18th meeting which included reps and students from Dixon, CAPS, Veterans, HSRC and CFR, it
was determined that SR3 co-locating with Dixon and CAPS was an idea worth including in the
Feasibility Study. SPAB had determined to spend approximately $70,000 from the fund balance
to address the SR3 Feasibility Study. The cost of including SR3 in the Dixon study will be
approximately $15,000. Should this study result in a decision to co-locate with Dixon and CAPS
then SPAB will need to determine a new plan for the remaining $55,000 that was allocated for a
study. This updated plan would then be forwarded to SIFC.
OLV Drop-off care update: I made an appointment with Barb Whiddon, the Child Care Division
licensor, to discuss licensing OLV Dixon and explore the vision of drop-off care in SR3. During
the initial call it came to my attention that we/OSU may be eligible for an Exempt status
meaning that we could operate at our discretion without being limited by licensing standards.
As a state funded agency, Barb was nearly positive that we would qualify. When Kristi and I
met with Barb we visited the Dixon site and discussed options for enabling parents to move
freely about campus. Barb has since confirmed with her supervisors that, yes, we qualify as an
exempt child care center and that parents are not restricted to staying in either the Library or
Dixon while their children are being cared for. Good news! We are now awaiting written notice
from the State and I have a call into Patrick Hughes, Chief Risk Officer, regarding the feasibility
of this scenario from a risk management stand point. I’ll keep you posted. If we get the green
light from the legal end of things we’ll begin making plans for a shift in care at the OLV sites.
NASPA Annual Conference: I continue to work with Clare and Gus on our NASPA presentation.
It’s titled Overlapping Identities: Teamwork to Meet Convergent Student Needs and we’ll be
presenting on Monday, 3/18 in Orlando, Florida. I will be out of the office the 18 th through the
20th of March. On March 13th from 12:00 – 1:30 in the Memorial Union 206 we will have a preconference practice opportunity to share our presentation and hopefully receive feedback for
fine tuning the presentation. Please join us!
NCCCC Annual Conference: Kristi will be attending the National Coalition for Campus
Children’s Center Annual Conference, being held in Williamsburg, VA. Kristi will be out of the
office the 13th through the 15th of March.
Wellness Week:
Wellness Week is the week of April 22nd. CFR will be organizing and coordinating numerous
offerings for parents on campus. Stay tuned for more info…
Bring Your Kid to Campus Day:
Will be at the end of Wellness Week on Friday, April 26th. Kristi, Erika and I recently met to
brainstorm ideas for the day as well as create a detailed “to do” list as we start planning this in
earnest. Should you have any ideas of activities, events you’d like for us to offer parents and
their children, please let us know.