Students, faculty and staff can get child care at UNM through the Children's Campus.
But they'll have to act fast to get their kid a spot, said Sarah Valles, the center's program manager.
"We joke about it, but not completely," Valles said. "The average wait for an infant room can be anywhere from one to two years."
There are about 300 children enrolled, but about 350 kids remain on the waiting list, Valles said.
For mothers trying to find day care for their children, the wait is too long, said Marisa Garcia, a full-time UNM student and mother of a 2-year-old.
"I put my daughter on the waiting list in 2006," she said. "At the time, they told me that it would be about two years before I could get her in. So, in order for me to get her a day care quickly, I would have had to have signed her up before I was pregnant with her."
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Garcia said she had to find another day care center for her daughter while she attends classes.
"I was lucky to find a day care provider that was on the way to school, which is very convenient for me," Garcia said. "But other mothers may not be as lucky."
Valles said the long waiting list is a concern for her.
"There is definitely a need to increase child care capacity on campus - in particular, programs that serve infants and toddlers," she said.
She said the center has received federal grants that make it possible to offer drop-in services as well as a sliding fee scale for students. It also receives money from student fees.
"It is specifically designed to support student retention," she said. "There is definitely a correlation between child care inability and an inability to carry on in school and meet the demands that school brings."
Ashley Fate, president of the Associated Students of UNM, said she wants to make the child care facility more accessible to students who need it.
"We share the child care facility with faculty and staff, as well, and when you consider that there are 20,000 undergraduates, 6,000 graduate students and thousands of faculty and staff, of course the resources are going to be stretched," she said.
Joseph Garcia, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, said his term ends in May, but he wants the next administration to make child care more accessible.
"It is potentially going to be one of our main initiatives," he said. "We are hoping that some of the people that continue next year will champion getting funding or making it a funding priority when the University goes down to the Legislature next year in regards to getting the type of funding necessary to improve or increase the capacity of the facility."
Garcia said GPSA wants the center to have facilities in more than one location on campus.
Fate said that is something her organization is also researching.
"I think that we are going to look into whether or not it would be beneficial to students to have a Main Campus child care facility as well as how much that capacity needs to be," she said.
