New possibility opens up for campus daycare center

By Rachel Hernandez
Staff Writer

The Student Affairs and Campus Life daycare subcommittee has been busy researching the possibility of a daycare center to be used by both faculty and students. The foremost concerns are still cost, liability, location and assessing the need for such a center.

One possibility that would eliminate the location and liability factors would be if the daycare center was located on-site at COMtech, the Carolina Commerce and Technology Center, nearby on Route 711. UNCP is already partnered with COMtech, an education and training hi-tech commerce park surrounded by a 620-acre site here in Robeson County.

COMtech is currently looking into several amenities, including an on-site daycare center that will help meet the needs of their partners and attract business and industry to the county.

“We would be very encouraging of a type of facility that could also be leveraged by UNCP and RCC to do some of their student training, so it could then serve as more than one purpose, it could serve as a training and skill developing site as well as a daycare. Those are the types of features that we look to put in our core holdings here,” said Tony Normand, chief executive officer of COMtech.

If the daycare center was located at COMtech, it would be run by a private company but COMtech would establish the site and infrastructure as well as manage and market the site. Normand said that they are being consistently selective about companies seeking to open a daycare center at COMtech.

“A concept that would involve the University and RCC and a teaching venture, as well as providing daycare services to both institutions and other individuals in the area, would have a high potential of being accepted,” he said.

Normand envisions the daycare center to be state of the art.

“Having a very nice facility that serves many uses is far more valuable to the community, to the staff, faculty and students of RCC and UNCP,” he said.

COMtech is partnered with UNCP, Robeson Community College, Public Schools of Robeson County, the Commissioners of Robeson County and Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation.