College can start to become difficult over time. Classes start off at the 100 level and work their way up to a level of wanting to pull your hair out. Rushing to get to school on time, getting your homework done and getting to work in order to pay the bills. I think most of us get that and have responsibilities that can be very overwhelming on top of attending college.

Now, if you don’t have a child please try to imagine if you did. We can all agree college can be hard but imagine raising a child at the same time. Most likely screaming and yelling in your ear wanting attention, but you can’t give them that, because you need to study for your exam tomorrow morning. Wanting to be a full-time parent, but you can’t. Those little eyes looking up depend on you and are oftentimes what drives a parent to finish college or drive them out.

Why not make it easier for them though? Northern Michigan University would expand and hold their student section of parents by incorporating a day care system for those that are eligible. I can already see the rise of GPA’s if parents were able to drop their children off for a couple hours of the day, attend class and complete work with no distractions. Meanwhile, the kids get to partake in a friendly environment with an excellent staff, and students who volunteer to help out, play with them and read them books.

All too often I see a kid latched on to Mom or Dad on Zoom calls because they cannot afford day care, and they’re forced to take online courses even though they wish they could be in person. Oftentimes parents are forced to drop out because they’re unable to keep up with the strenuous workload. Bringing in a day care would give parents the break they need throughout their day to focus on school, and I firmly believe that it would attract parents from around the country to want to attend Northern.

NMU is an amazing university that lacks one thing … a day care.

Travis Bessner, junior criminal justice major