The University Child Development will have two Washburn Student Government Association members on their board in order to ensure proper communication and proper allocation of funding this year.

The UCD receives two grants from the University, one from WSGA, and one from the President’s office. These grants go to helping pay for the major bills of the University Child Development because they are a non-profit organization, according to Cece Lia Courter, director of the University Child Development.

There has been a challenge of recent to keep the student government informed about what was going on in the UCD, but with two members now on the board, it will be easier.

The major reason for controversy over funding is that the university gives roughly $30,000 to the UCD, and it’s somewhat unknown where it exactly goes.

The UCD has always reserved seats on its board of directors for students, specifically three seats have to be filled by students, and two will now have to be filled by WSGA members. There are 13 members on the board, according to Alan Bearman, Dean of Library Studies and also a liason to the university for the UCD.

The UCD has undergone many projects through the use of grants, including putting up fencing, putting webcams into the rooms, and they plan on adding in a system that would allow them to lock the building down at all times, and control who is able to come in and out.

The University gives money to the University Child Development to ensure that students, faculty, and staff are able to ensure the quality services that are offered by the UCD.

For the grants, the UCD gives priority enrollment and flexible schedules for students and faculty members of Washburn University. Around 80 percent of the children who stay at the UCD are from students, faculty, or staff at Washburn University, said Courter.

The University currently provides about eight percent of the UCD’s budget.

Right now, the facility is only supposed to have 41 kids  at one time. They did have a grant to expand but they had to return it, because the building did not have room to expand, because of changes in regulations.

“They have had to turn a lot of people away,” said Cassandra Gaddis, assistant director of the University Child Development.

But Bearman is still in firm support of the work that UCD provides.

“It’s students helping students…and in this way is a truly wonderful thing,” said Bearman.