The perspectives and opinions printed in this Letter to the Editor are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the positions of Portland State Vanguard or its editorial staff.
Last quarter, ASPSU Children’s Center (ASPSU CC) parents and staff were notified accidentally, and with short notice, that their center would be merging with Helen Gordon Child Development Center (HGCDC) due to budget cuts. The decision makers were interim Dean for the College of Education Dean Jose Coll (who recently resigned) and Director of HGCDC Lynn Green. No one from the ASPSU CC was consulted for input. Not even Kim Allen, a Black woman who has served as the director of the ASPSU CC for over 25 years. When we asked why parents and staff were not consulted, Lynn Green recently stated, “Families were not informed about the decision-making process because it was a business decision that had to be made on an administrative level, and involvement of families would not have been appropriate.”
As heartless as this sounds, it is not surprising. Throughout this whole process, Lynn Green has denied opportunities to speak with ASPSU CC families and staff collectively, and has deceived ASPSU CC families and staff, along with the Portland State University community as a whole. To encourage transparency and shed light on the impact this merge will have on families, the ASPSU CC hosted a virtual public town and invited the entire PSU community, including Lynn Green and Dean Jose Coll personally, but they did not show up. Instead, Lynn Green and her HGCDC team presumably spent countless hours creating ridiculous responses to our petitions/letters of support to stop the merge.
For example, Lynn Green and her HGCDC team are calling this merger a “reorganization” to make it sound less severe than it really is. ASPSU CC families have been told that the space where the ASPSU CC currently exists will still be there and will still operate, but in a different capacity. It will become an extension of HGCDC, primarily serving infants and toddlers. For context, ASPSU CC currently serves both infants/toddlers and preschoolers. ASPSU CC serves 6-month-olds to 5-year-olds. Because of this range of ages, ASPSU CC often serves siblings who are taken care of right next door to each other.
Make no mistake. The ASPSU CC was established in the late 1990s because of the advocacy of PSU students to support students who are parents with the mission to serve the campus community by contributing to student success and retention through the provision of high-quality, affordable, flexible short and extended hour child care. Students needed an alternative to HGCDC. The ASPSU CC is a student fee funded entity and has served as an affordable and viable alternative to other daycare centers that are available on PSU campus. With this merger, PSU students, staff and faculty with children will have one less affordable option to send their children.
Here are some thoughts about the deceitful comments recently made by the HGCDC team.
“ASPSU Children’s Center IS NOT being ‘shut down’”
The ASPSU CC as we know it today will no longer exist. After this merger, the many benefits (intentional mission for diversity, flexibility, affordability, intimate care, majority Staff/Caretakers of Color, etc.) will no longer be available to future students, staff and faculty with children. This merger removes the heart and soul of ASPSU CC and its intentional serving of marginalized populations. Sure, the childcare space will remain, but it will never operate in the same way it has been for the past 25 years under the leadership of Kim Allen. Its autonomy will be removed. Its affordability will vanish. Its diversity will be a thing of the past. Call it what it is. They’re shutting it down!
“ASPSU CC’s mission of providing more flexible/hourly care is NOT going away… It is true that ASPSU CC were told that their rates would remain the same when the transition was to happen in Spring… HGCDC seems more expensive because the amount seen when looking at the rate sheet is much higher than the hourly rates. When broken down to cost per hour provided, however, HGCDC offers a much lower rate, especially for those families who need full-time care.”
Decision makers are trying to “hush” families of ASPSU CC by telling current families that they will be paying the same rate and will be receiving more. What about future PSU students, staff and faculty with children? It is important for ASPSU CC to remain separate from HGCDC to give future students, staff and faculty with children more affordable options for childcare. Decision makers are saying that all childcare options are going up in price, but ASPSU CC is the most affordable, even with the price hike. Don’t believe the deceitfulness. HGCDC is more expensive. It was admitted by HGCDC that they are more affordable only if families send their kids full time. This is not the reality for all families. Not all families want to send their children to daycare full time or can afford full time care, and they should not be incentivized to do so. This is why affordable and flexible childcare like ASPSU CC is so important. This is something future families at PSU will not have access to.
“Staff support has been offered to ASPSU CC director/coordinator, Kim Allen, on numerous occasions and each time, there was either no response to the offer or Kim declined the support.”
This is embarrassing. Lynn Green has resorted to gaslighting ASPSU CC staff and families. It is always alarming whenever someone says, “I offered support, but they didn’t want it.” There is a difference between “offering” and ensuring support. A true leader investigates what support is needed, and then offers that type of support accordingly. When Kim Allen was asked about this exact statement, she admitted that Lynn Green has offered support, but it is the wrong kind of support. Lynn Green thinks that sending more student interns/teachers to ASPSU CC will resolve all issues, when in reality Kim needs billing/invoice/administrative support.
“We believe that a person’s identity or diversity of a community is not defined by checking a box based solely on the ethnic or racial status.”
This is a primary issue with HGCDC. They fail to recognize the importance of race, which explains why they have struggled with their racial diversity efforts. Conversely, ASPSU CC has historically and continues to intentionally serve Families of Color and currently has majority Staff of Color. Kim Allen has made it a mission to serve all families, especially Families of Color, and many of these families (White and Families of Color) deeply admire her for that. Families of Color are constantly referring other Families of Color to ASPSU CC because of Kim Allen’s deep commitment for diversity. On the other hand, HGCDC has struggled with diversity over the years, as admitted by one of their staff members in a recent meeting. Our guess is that they are hoping that with this forced merge, their diversity problem can be fixed. That’s not how it works. Rather than forcing a merge, HGCDC should spend their time and energy to come up with a plan to recruit and support Staff and Families of Color for their own sake of sustainability and to better serve Families and Staff of Color.
When Kim Allen told Lynn Green she was against the merge and that she would be quitting if the merge happens, Lynn Green heartlessly said, “It’s going to be sad to see you go.” Such response proves a lack of commitment to diversity. To refuse to retain an experienced Black caretaker with over 25 years of service is very telling. Additionally, Beverly Armstrong, who has been a caretaker at ASPSU CC for over 17 years had negative experiences at HGCDC as a Black woman, and she said she will be quitting, too. To make matters worse, in conversation over the phone, Lynn Green told Beverly Armstrong that HGCDC “needs more color.” We are not okay using ASPSU Staff and Families of Color for a diversity effort that HGCDC has failed to fulfill on their own. Multiple ASPSU CC families have expressed that they will be in solidarity with ASPSU CC staff and will not be sending their kids to HGCDC.
HGCDC’s recent response to the ASPSU’s CC petition to stop the merge was that racial diversity is not everything, and that HGCDC takes pride in having diversity in other aspects. The lack of racial diversity at HGCDC has been very evident throughout this whole process. No one from HGCDC is willing to challenge Lynn Green, a Black woman in charge of a non-transparent decision-making process. Perhaps folks think that because Lynn Green has a history of teaching diversity classes, she knows what’s best for Families of Color. That’s far from the truth. There are many administrators, professors and teachers who do not practice what they preach, and Dean Jose Coll and Lynn Green have proven to be exemplars of such. Universities often put People of Color in positions of power to “prove” that they value diversity. More times than not, those People of Color make decisions that work against their own communities. Still, no one is excused from inequitable and non-transparent decision-making processes. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful reminder that “All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk.” Dean Jose Coll and Lynn Green: Do better.
Stop the Merge!
