Amid cries from students and faculty members for change, this fall the administration addressed child care offered on campus.

The McPhaul Child and Family Development Center, the sole child care facility on campus, cares for 115 children, according to the center’s Web site. But this isn’t enough, speakers at the Child Care Rally on Sept. 27 argued.

The Women’s Studies Student Organization and the Campus Coalition for Expanding Childcare at the University organized the rally in the Tate Center Plaza.

The rally was held to garner interest and support for increasing child care at the University.

This event and other efforts were not to ask the administration for free child care services, Janet Frick, an associate professor of psychology, wrote in an e-mail.

“It’s about getting sufficient quality child care available on or near campus for productivity and to keep UGA competitive,” Frick wrote.

The administration started looking into child care before the rally, said Arnett Mace, senior vice president of academic affairs.

“Did (the rally) change our plans? No, because we had already planned to hire a consultant,” Mace said in a phone interview.

In addition to hiring consultants from WFD Consulting, Mace formed a child care committee in October to assess the situation. The committee will assist consultants in determining the type of child care needed.

Donald Bower, head of the child and family development department and a member of the committee, said committee members represent a broad range of viewpoints.

“In that first meeting, I was sitting next to Mattie Green, who has primary custody of her grandchild,” he said. “She brought a perspective to the table that Mace recognized.”

Kelly Simmons, editor of Georgia magazine and another member of the committee, said Mace contacted her and others to review a survey created by the consultants, which will be released to the University in January.

“The survey is really specific – it asks who has children or who is thinking about children, travel time to campus, who would use child care, things like that,” Simmons said. “When it’s done, it will give a really good cross-campus view of who would use (child care) and what type we need.”

“Anybody on campus is a stakeholder in this issue,” Simmons said.

Bower agreed, saying his college has a vested interest in the child care issue.

“We’ve got a lot of faculty and graduate students (in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences) interested in the outcome,” he said.

Until the survey’s release in January, the consulting firm will meet with the committee to tie up loose ends.

The University community will have time from Jan. 7 until Jan. 22 to complete the survey. After that, the committee will have two meetings before the consulting firm issues its final report in February, Bower said.

“I’m really glad to be involved,” he said.