For Jack Caughey, a UCLA teaching assistant working on his Ph.D. in English literature, the pressures of parenthood are a little different than for the average working dad.“As a grad student, you have to work all the time – but that also means you can work whenever you want; so in some ways I’m able to play with my kids more than if I had a 50-hour-a-week job,” Caughey said. “But there are definitely competing demands. Do I sit down and write a few more pages of my dissertation, or take a break with my daughter and go to the park?”
One decision was a no-brainer, though: applying for the UCLA Graduate Division’s child-care reimbursement, a $600-per-quarter benefit that puts up to $2,400 a year back into his family’s bank account.
“It doesn’t cover everything, but it does help,” he said. “It means you can focus a little more on getting work done. I think it speaks well of UCLA’s grad program – my last school didn’t offer it.”
UCLA’s Graduate Division expanded that benefit this month, and the $600-per-quarter or $900-per-semester reimbursement is now available to graduate student researchers, not just teaching assistants. The funding comes from the Chancellor’s Office, and students can use it for UCLA child care or the services of any other licensed child-care agency. About 30 teaching assistants used the benefit over the past year, and an estimated 25 graduate student researchers will take advantage of the expanded program.
“There are enough financial challenges for graduate students, and if you have children, it’s even more expensive,” said Robin Garrell, vice provost and dean of the Graduate Division. “We want to ease that burden as best we can with financial support.”
The child-care benefit is one of several family-friendly policies at the Graduate Division. The division introduced a childbirth accommodation policy for its student employees in 2012, ensuring that birth mothers receive paid time off to recover from labor, whether they are paid through teaching assistantships, research assistantships or fellowships.
More expansively, the Graduate Division’s leave-of-absence policy covers all its students. The leave policy allows them to take time off for various reasons, including for family needs, and remain in good academic standing. In the past year, 101 students – more than a quarter of the students who used the policy – took the time for family obligations.
“That includes caring for a parent, a spouse or a new baby, as well as other family emergencies,” Garrell said. “‘Family obligations’ is a nice, big basket that includes all sorts of needs.”
Gay Macdonald, the executive director of Early Care and Education (ECE) at UCLA, applauded the Graduate Division for adding to the university’s programs offering financial assistance for child care. The application fee at ECE is waived for students, and ECE awards 10-12 scholarships to student families each year through the Endowed Child Care scholarship fund. Making child care accessible and available with programs like the endowment and the Graduate Division’s new benefit is crucial, Macdonald said.
“There’s plenty of research to back up the intuitive feeling that if you have reliable, quality child care, you’re going to be able to focus on your work better, feel better and do better,” Macdonald said.
Space at ECE is coveted by parents across campus, and there are a few open slots right now for children ages 2-5, Macdonald said.
“People are used to hearing that there’s an enormous wait list at ECE, and that it’s too expensive, but people need to fact-check what they hear,” she said. “We have scholarships for student families, and anyone with a 4-year-old could walk in and get a spot today.”
To apply for the UCLA Graduate Division’s child-care reimbursement benefit, students can download an application online at www.grad.ucla.edu/gss/childcare and contact their departmental personnel coordinator. Send questions to Ana Lebon, the Graduate Division’s director of fellowships and financial services, at alebon@grad.ucla.edu or 310-206-4309.
