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