Spring Break
University takes baby steps toward helping student mothers
Kimberly Tsao
Issue date: 5/13/09 Section: Features
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She is seven months pregnant with her second child. She was carrying her first daughter while attending SJSU, in the fall of 2004.
She is one of the 32,746 students enrolled at SJSU in 2008, according to the Office of Institutional Research Web site.
She is one of the 32,746 students who paid for SJSU's services, and one of the estimated 120 parents who use the Associated Students Child Care Center.
She is not, however, one of the few people who are on the SJSU Women's Resource Center's e-mail list.
Women's Resource Center
Bonnie Sugiyama, the center's director, said it's more of a "referral service" right now.
"When I refer people to places, like when I'm not sure they're going to get exactly the services they need," she said, "I always call the provider and find out what exactly they offer, so that I'm not sending somebody on a wild goose chase, because that's the worst thing you can do to somebody, be, 'Oh, I don't know, here. Go here. Go there.'"
Sugiyama said she has worked at women's centers in Sacramento and Sonoma State.
"When people asked me what we did and I was, like, 'Well, what do you want us to do?' because if you have a question, I'm going to do the best that I can to figure out the answer for you, or many answers, to send you in the right direction - even if it's not about women's stuff," she said.
The center, located in Building BB near Campus Village, offers books students can borrow and a lactation room, which Sugiyama said the staff is going to spruce up over the summer so mothers can breastfeed their babies between classes.
Sugiyama was hired as a staff member, working part time for the women's center and part time for the LGBT Center.
"It's just hard to do the women's center right now because I have no background information," she said. "I have nothing on that group and there's not a lot of involvement, and I have a whole bunch of students who are really involved with the LGBT stuff."
At the women's center, she works with two other students, one of whom was gone for most of April.
"Right now, she's not really in because she's behind in her classes," Sugiyama said. "You know how that happens."
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Phyllis
posted 5/13/09 @ 11:34 AM PST
Kim, Single mothers are sometimes left out of college,
school functions and special programs. Just because a woman has a child, does not mean she wants to forgo her education. (Continued…)
San Diego Movers
posted 6/02/09 @ 8:10 AM PST
It's a really good thing that there's an effort to help student mothers. They are a group of students that should definitely not be ignored and should be helped. (Continued…)
Neil Signo
posted 6/19/09 @ 9:22 PM PST
At this point I can tell you, the reason why the part-time jobs with benefits dissappeared from the local mall?
A 'young buckaroo' at the age of 60 spoke up, the shareholder forms to remove part-time jobs filled by college students, divorced women, and senior citizens were axed. (Continued…)
that problemchild
posted 6/19/09 @ 11:26 PM PST
What to say?
The chances of another pregnancy is high.
The chances of the biological parents spliting up is high. Pre-martial sex chances are they are looking back at former mates that kissed. (Continued…)
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