The shortage of on-campus day care has been a challenge for many nontraditional students who are left with the problem of finding their own childcare services.

“Day care is such a headache,” said nontraditional student Lisa Wood, senior in dietetics. “It’s just one of the hardest things to deal with.” Wood has one young child in day care and one in elementary school.

The university offers day care at two locations on campus, University Childcare Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine and University Community Childcare in Pammel Court, but both facilities are currently full.

“There are over 260 kids who are on a waiting list to get into on-campus day care, and those are only the ones who have been identified,” said Penny Rosenthal, director of Off-Campus and Adult Student Services. “Many parents don’t have a choice, so a lot of older children get left home alone.”

Nontraditional student Anne Gotschall, junior in biology, said she started to look into day care for one of her three children before she even moved to Ames, and she is still on the waiting list.

“I called last January to be put on the waiting list for August, and there are still over 200 people on that list,” she said.

Rosenthal said many nontraditional students are faced with a similar dilemma.

“A lot of students get on the waiting list while they still live out of town, and by the time they get down here and there is space open, their kids are already in school,” she said.

The need for on-campus day care has increased considerably in the past few years, and with the large number of nontraditional students now enrolling at Iowa State, it will continue to expand, Gotschall said.

“There is going to be a growing need, especially because the university is starting to cater to nontraditional students,” she said.

Affordability and convenience are two major factors that some nontraditional students consider when looking for day care.

“Day care, wherever you go in this city, is expensive. It’s just ungodly,” Gotschall said. “A lot of mothers don’t have cars here, so they rely on buses for transportation, and sometimes that makes it hard to pick up their children.”

The lack of drop-in and evening day care are also presenting some major problems for nontraditional students.

“There is an incredible need for part-time and evening drop-in care because some students have night classes, and some just need to study,” Rosenthal said.

The shortage of on-campus day care is not a problem that is exclusive to Iowa State, but there are several ways that the university could help, she said.

“I know that some institutions have purchased houses around the university to set up day care in, and some other universities have worked with the churches in the area to provide day care,” Rosenthal said.