Dear Interim Provost Ira Katznelson,

As parents and other members of the Columbia community, we thank you for providing an emergency child care benefit in July and August, which provided up to $3000 to help address urgent problems faced by parents during the COVID-19 crisis and allowed us to continue to be invested in our research and other duties despite the abnormal situation.

These urgent problems have not yet been solved. Many of us must be on campus to complete our work, while the cost of finding reliable childcare has increased steeply, and its availability has become limited. The partial reopening of schools has also added to the significant burden placed on parents balancing full time work duties with childcare. Often parents are forced to choose between making progress on research and other professional responsibilities, and the safety and education of our children. The current COVID-19 reality is dynamic, and the possibility of schools shutting down soon after re-opening only increases the uncertainty parents face.

We ask that you continue a comparable emergency childcare benefit to cover the remainder of 2020 and ensure that it is accessible for all officers, support staff, and graduate students to help address these important concerns so that we can more effectively and flexibly focus on our work during this period.