MIT Graduate Family Needs Assessment and Recommendations

1. Family Subcommittee Participants: Shay Artzi Andréa Schmidt Pam Smalley Kelly Smith Kim Smith Administrative Support: Jennifer Recklet Family Presentation

2. An assessment of the current situation and needs of graduate students with families at MIT Family Statistics Cost of Living Overview Housing Child Care Health Care Administrative Support/Advocacy Discrimination Recommendations Summary Family Needs Presentation

3. Family Statistics • 38% of MIT graduate students are married/partnered Occupation of spouses/partners

4. Family Statistics (con’t) Occupation of spouses/partners of graduate student parents • 7% of MIT grad students have children, with an average of 1.6 children per family • There are about 660-700 children of MIT grad students • Only 14% of graduate student parents are mothers (28% of graduate students are women)

5. Family Statistics (con’t)

6. Cost of Living Overview

7. Benefits of Family Housing: Affordable housing in proximity of work, day care, medical care, athletics Support networks betweenfamilies (e.g. shared babysitting) Balancing work and family is difficult for parents; this is even more challenging for off-campus students with long commutes Family Housing

8. Discrepancy in the availability of housing for single students and families Available Apartments vs. Demand Total # of family apartments on campus: 413 (19% of on-campus total) 203 in Eastgate, 210 in Westgate Source: Housing Office Total # of married/partnered students at MIT: 2388 (38% of all students) Source: DSL Survey, Provost’s Office New single students are guaranteed housing; new family students are not Family Housing

9. What makes building new family housing difficult? Building regulations for buildings occupied by children Difficult to recover cost of building through rents (e.g. Eastgate 2-bedroom is $1367/month, Edgerton 2-bedroom is $852 per person = $1704/month) Eastgate and Westgate level rents could not pay for a new building! Housing Recommendations

10. Solution: Build new family housing for couples with no children only (entirely 1-bedrooms) Market as newer, nicer housing for couples who would prefer something more in the style of Edgerton but still affordable Edgerton 1-bedrooms are currently $1269/month and 585 square feet – a little bigger, much nicer, and only $123 more than Eastgate corners (the most popular type of family apartment) Housing Recommendations

11. Benefits: Families without children are more likely to want/afford more expensive apartments This would free up space in Eastgate/Westgate, which may become occupied primarily by couples with children Possibility of guaranteeing housing to new family students It would also diversify the family housing market so that incoming families have options Housing Recommendations

12. Renovate part/all of Tang as Family Housing Resources (like the playground) can be shared between Tang and Westgate Allow Couples in Some Singles Housing: 1-bedrooms and efficiencies in singles housing could accommodate couples Anonymous inside source says there are about 25 “illegal” couples in S & P and 15 in Warehouse Housing Recommendations

13. 121 full-time slots allotted for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in Eastgate and the Stata Center These are shared between the children of faculty, staff, postdocs, and students A faculty committee determined in 1999 that in order for MIT to be competitive, we needed to 150 additional slots – Stata only added 75! Tuition: $1274-$1795/month for full time $15,300-$21,540 per year Scholarship available for about 12 students: eligible families are expected to pay 25% of their income per child and all scholarship money is taxable! Scholarships can only be used at TCC. MIT Child Care Overview

14. MIT Child Care - Capacity

15. Improves the happiness and productivity of faculty, staff, postdocs, and grad students Makes MIT more attractive to female grad students and faculty who have/want families Value of MIT Child Care * Figures in this column based on 13 responses Source: Faculty Survey, 2001

16. Why don’t parents look for off-campus child care? Dropping kids off at MIT saves time! Breast-feeding mothers can visit on-campus child care during the day to nurse Parents can have confidence that it is a well-run center (because of its affiliation with MIT) Scholarship is currently only useable at TCC Value of MIT Child Care

17. Increase Capacity!!!!! Build new centers Buy up “slots” in local child care centers reserved for MIT parents Consider collaborations with local companies (e.g. Novartis) Expand scholarship program Some schools have scholarship programs that can be used to pay for any legal form of child care Child Care Recommendations

18. The Westgate co-op opened in Fall 2005! Pilot program is toddlers only, with capacity of 12 Thank you to the many people who worked on the co-op! We hope that MIT continues to support part-time and cooperative child care arrangements MIT Child Care:Westgate Co-op

19. For the last several years, family health insurance premiums have decreased Health Care • We appreciate these decreases very much – they help mitigate the financial difficulties faced by most families

20. Last year, we recommended that the MIT non-discrimination policy be amended to include “married, partnered, or parental status.” Although the idea was well received, the change was never implemented Discrimination continues to affect the lives of students with families at MIT We continue to urge you to implement these changes so that students, faculty, and staff know that this discrimination is against MIT policy. Non-discrimination Policy

21. Most graduate dorms have housemasters and those that do not had a residential life representative (Gabrielle Abelard) until recently Responsibilities include community activities programming, emergency management, and general advocacy Representing three graduate dorms is too difficult for a single person to manage Recommendation: Hire a full-time residential life representative for Westgate and Eastgate, who can advocate for graduate student families Administrative Support/Advocacy

22. Housing Build newer/nicer couples-only housing to free up spots in Eastgate/Westgate Allow couples to live in some singles apartments Renovate part/all of Tang as family housing Child Care Increase Capacity!!! Expand scholarship beyond TCC Health Care Keep up the Good Work! Discrimination Reconsider the proposed changes to the non-discrimination clause Administrative support/advocacy We need stronger representation for dorms without housemasters Recommendations Summary