The Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Dependent Care (CACDC)

• Committee Charge
• Contacting the Committee
• History and Accomplishments
• Membership

Contacting the Committee
To reach the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Dependent care, please contact Wendy Nishikawa, Work/Life Manager and CACDC CoChair. You can reach Wendy by emailing her (wnishikawa@uhs.berkeley.edu) or by calling her at 510-642-7883.

In recognition of the fact that dependent care responsibilities of faculty and staff are not limited to child care, the Committee's charge was expanded in 1991 to include advising campus administration on broad issues of dependent care, including the care of ill or disabled family members and friends and aging parents. The next Guide for Balancing Work and Family reflected this addition of elder/adult dependent care, as well as containing updates and changes in policies and benefits. Almost 5000 copies of the Guide were distributed in 1998, and Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University purchased the Guide for distribution to their faculty and staff. The CACDC website came on line in the fall of 1997.

Since its creation, the Committee's numerous accomplishments have had a wide impact on the well being of University employees. The Berkeley Campus has received many awards for its efforts in addressing work/life issues.

Other Committee accomplishments include:

• Flexible Work Arrangements, Including Telecommuting
  In April 1991, Chancellor Tien sent a memo to Deans, Directors, Department Chairs, and Administrative Officers promoting the use of alternative work schedules to ease conflicts between work and home responsibilities. Since that time, the campus personnel office has conducted a series of forums on Flexible Work Arrangements for managers and staff. As of 1997, the campus adopted a specific telecommuting policy. Flexible work arrangements have been supported by Chancellor Berdahl as indicated in his introduction to the Guide and in other memos he has sent to campus.

• Child Care
  A campus survey and report with recommendations was published and approved in 1989. The Committee continues to address the recommendations not yet completed. Child Care Services and the Institute of Human Development sponsor a full-day, year-round pre-school program for 24 children of faculty and staff at the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center. This was expanded to 48 children of faculty and staff in 1996. With the support of the Space Assignments and Capital Improvements (SACI) Committee, this Committee has worked with Deans and Directors to identify space and develop plans for infant and toddler childcare programs in existing campus buildings and in buildings with planned renovations. In 1999, at the Chancellor's initiation, an infant/toddler center for 24 faculty and staff children opened. The University has matched Office of the President's funding towards the development of a new early childhood education facility, opening January 2007, to serve 74 children of faculty, staff and students.

• Academic and Staff Personnel Policies
  A variety of academic and staff personnel policies have been improved over the last several years. These relate to paid and unpaid leave for pregnancy, parenting, and caring for ill family members. On the academic side these include tenure clock stoppage and active service/modified duties and flexible part-time positions. On the staff side, policies on sick leave have been expanded to include care for family members. A catastrophic leave-sharing program allows staff to donate vacation leave to those coworkers facing serious health problems, their own family's, requiring time off. FMLA has been implemented and is helpful to those requiring time off for their own or family's health problems, including paternity leave.

• Counseling, Referrals, Workshops, Support Groups, Brown Bag Lunches
  CARE Services for Faculty and Staff provides all of the above for no charge. The topics include parenting and adult dependent care/elder care.

• Fundraising for New Child Care Facilities and Scholarships
  In 1993, proposals were submitted to the Campus Development Office for the expansion of campus child care facilities for faculty and staff and for underwriting the operating costs of this quality child care to make it affordable. Though not accepted into Campaign 2001, efforts are still underway to seek scholarship funding for children in the infant /toddler and pre-school programs.

• Elder Care/Adult Dependent Care
  In conjunction with Professor Andrew Scharlach of the School of Social Welfare, the Committee conducted a major needs assessment survey of faculty and staff adult dependent care/elder care in Spring 1992. The Committee issued 23 policy and program recommendations on the basis of these survey results which were in turn accepted by the Chancellor. In 1997 an elder care counselor in CARE Services was funded to provide counseling, information, referral, workshops, groups and other programming to faculty and staff caregivers. In addition, an elder care e-mail digest was started in 1998 for sharing of resources and support by caregivers in the campus community. The elder care program received funds from the Academic Geriatric Resource Program for a special series on dementia in 1999-2000, and for additional activities in 2002.

• Benefits
  New mothers can retain some of their sick leave (if they have more than 22 days available) until after delivery while still qualifying for disability income pre-birth of a child. The Committee's additional advocacy efforts to OP have included support of the now available longterm care insurance and domestic partner benefits.

• Breastfeeding Support Program
  Lactation rooms have been established in various sites on campus, equipped with hospital grade breast pumps for nursing mothers to pump during the work day. In addition, individual breast pumps are sold through University Health Services/Health*Matters at below market value and a lactation consultant offers a training session to moms at least once a year.

• Summer Youth Programs
  Recreational Sports and the Lawrence Hall of Science were the first departments to offer a full day program (combining science and sports/recreational activities) with supervised transportation between the two sites. Now, additional campus programs are working together to offer full day programs. Each year a listing of campus summer programs are published in the Berkeleyan to facilitate faculty and staff planning. In addition, campus programs are offering programs up to Labor Day and during spring break to meet the schedule needs of working parents.

• Academic Calendar
  The Committee provides comments on proposed academic calendars each year in hopes of coordinating the start of the fall semester, President's birthday, and spring break with K-12 academic schedules. The President's birthday is now consistent with K-12 schools and the fall semester is commencing closer to Labor Day.

• Student Dependent Care Issues
  The Committee identified some of the comparable issues facing student parents and caregivers and recommended the development of a " sister " committee, coordinated with CACDC, to address those issues. A student parent workgroup was formed with a report with recommendations put forth Fall, 1997 and a survey was conducted. A new graduate student policy similar to tenure clock stoppage was implemented Spring, 1998.

• UC Systemwide Efforts
  Members of the Committee participated on the 1991 Universitywide Task Force on Dependent Care. A systemwide conference was held Fall, 1998 on work/family/life issues, with the Berkeley campus assuming a leadership role in conference planning. There is a work/life listserve and annual meetings for work/life professionals from all of the campuses. The Sloan Foundation funded UC Family Edge Project is a multi-year systemwide initiative to adress faculty work/family challenges.

• Recognition for Efforts
  The Berkeley campus has received many awards for its efforts in addressing the work/family conflicts. Included are awards from One Small Step, the Bay Area employer work/family organization and the US Department Of Labor- Women's Bureau. The Excellence in Management Awards in 1998 were based on managers' support for their staff in the balance of their work/life issues. The individuals on the team that was responsible for the Guide for Balancing Work and Family received Distinguished Service Cash Awards.