The center will accommodate up to 100 infants and children ranging in age from six weeks to kindergarten age. The current facilities serve just 65. In addition to classroom space for the children, the new center will include a multi-purpose classroom for student instruction, a family meeting area, video monitoring in each room for university students to observe teaching techniques and child behavior, and separate outside playground areas for the infants and the older children. Academic majors in social work, counselor education and educational psychology also will use the facility. Additionally, we will be sponsoring child development training and other educational experiences for professionals in the local community and across the region, said Hastings.
Architectural plans allow for expansion to include a wing devoted to senior citizens.
Eldercare, as well as child care, will be an important issue in the future, so the new facility has been designed with this in mind, Hastings said. For most of the university community, our extended families live elsewhere than Starkville, so our children here are missing out on that interaction with older adults. This eldercare aspect of the center would provide opportunities for the children and the senior citizens to interact, she added. The proposed eldercare wing also would serve as a laboratory for students in the school's concentration in gerontology. The university has contracted with KQC of Lewisville, N.C., a specialist in child development center design.