May 6, 2008 8:00 AM

More room for littlest Bruins

The long, one-to-three-year waiting list for campus child care just got a little shorter with the eagerly awaited expansion of the Krieger Child Care Center on north campus.

Filling the 90 new spaces helped cut a little into the estimated backlog of 600 to 800 families, but with such high demand, the waiting list will still be years long. Even as parents and teachers gathered on April 30 for the center's grand opening, many were already looking ahead — including Chancellor Gene Block.

"Faculty who are offered jobs are looking for affordable housing and affordable child care more and more," Block said. "We have to provide opportunities for child care ...and I look forward to more opportunities to celebrate the opening of additional child care."

But no one knows when that will be.

The university's real estate department is looking for sites near campus where a new child care center could be built, and Early Care and Education (ECE) plans to work hard to raise funds, but both will take time, said Gay Macdonald, the ECE executive director.

"If there were simple answers, we would have already done them," she said.

Though future expansion is still in the exploratory phase, that didn't dent the celebratory mood of the roughly 200 people who came to the ceremony. The $6-million expansion was funded in part by a $2.8-million gift from the late Milton "Curly" Krieger, who was a UCLA alumnus. He also attended elementary school at the California State Normal School, UCLA's predecessor.

The Krieger Center gained five more classrooms, a new playground and a larger kitchen last summer, and the original four classes were shifted into the new building while the old building was renovated.

A parade of strollers trundled toward the gathering as parents arrived with little ones sucking on bottles, pacifiers and even cell phones. A class of 4-year-olds welcomed guests in several languages, and — armed with safety scissors — helped Block cut the ribbon. Once inside, everyone found refreshments among the roasted vegetables and baked brie — or at the table laden with pizza and juice boxes.

Parent and law student Alla Berry was among those admiring the new facilities, and she recalled her days on the waiting list.

"It was much harder to get into day care than UCLA," she said. "It took almost three years, and if it wasn't for the expansion, we never would have gotten in."

With two children in UCLA day care, Professor David Paige, a space scientist, said he and his wife pay at least $2,200 a month.

"That takes a huge chunk of our paychecks, but it's the best possible place for the kids to be," Paige said. "It makes all the difference. We can come to school all in the same car as a family, and I can come see them whenever I want to."

Angela Chen, an OB/GYN at the UCLA Medical Center, said her two boys spent years in off-site day care before getting into campus day care, which her youngest still attends.

"It's a major contributor to daily life stress if your child is not close by, so having affordable, easy access to child care is important to the retention of faculty," Chen said. "I'm much happier now that my child is here on campus, so I can focus more on my work."

1