Child-care facility made possible

President Donald Zacharias (l) and Paul Piper sign the agreement

Mississippi State will construct a new child development and family studies center on campus, thanks to a unique gift arrangement from a Tennessee philanthropic foundation.

The Christ Is Our Salvation (CIOS) Foundation, established by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Piper of Memphis, is providing a long-term, interest-free $1 million loan. The university will use the loan to construct the School of Human Sciences Child Development/Family Studies Center.

"Mr. Piper's philosophy is to make the world a better place, beginning with our children," said President Donald W. Zacharias, who began his relationship with Piper when the two met at a Mississippi State-University of Memphis football game several years ago.

"He has a very special interest in children, as reflected by similar efforts he is supporting," Zacharias said. "He helps people of all ages, encouraging them to improve the quality of their lives and the lives of others. He doesn't give handouts, as evidenced by his contribution to Mississippi State, but he helps people help themselves."

Since 1994, the CIOS Foundation has funded a Mississippi State student loan program.

Groundbreaking for the 9,000 square-foot Child Development/Family Studies Center is expected this spring, with the facility to be operational by early 1998.

The facility will be located on College View Street between Aiken Village-the university's family housing complex-and Humphrey Coliseum. The building also will serve as the new home of the university's infant/toddler and child development programs, both of which now are located in two wood-frame structures built in the 1930s for faculty housing.

The new center will continue to be staffed by full-time child development professionals and will serve as a teaching laboratory for nearly 100 students enrolled in the human development and family studies curriculum.

"It is designed as an optimum child development facility, but also as a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory," said Shirley Hastings, head of the School of Human Sciences. "We operate as an academic unit that combines salaried child development professionals with college students to form a unique and enriched environment."

The center will accommodate up to 100 infants and children ranging in age from six weeks to kindergarten age. The current facilities serve just 65.

In addition to classroom space for the children, the new center will include a multi-purpose classroom for student instruction, a family meeting area, video monitoring in each room for university students to observe teaching techniques and child behavior, and separate outside playground areas for the infants and the older children.

Students from the School of Human Sciences' foods, nutrition and dietetics program will get hands-on experience by coordinating food preparation in the center's commercial-sized kitchen. Academic majors in social work, counselor education and educational psychology also will use the facility.

"Additionally, we will be sponsoring child development training and other educational experiences for professionals in the local community and across the region," said Hastings.

Architectural plans allow for expansion to include a wing devoted to senior citizens.

"Eldercare, as well as child care, will be an important issue in the future, so the new facility has been designed with this in mind," Hastings said. "For most of the university community, our extended families live elsewhere than Starkville, so our children here are missing out on that interaction with older adults.

The proposed eldercare wing also would serve as a laboratory for students in the school's concentration in gerontology.

The university has contracted with KQC of Lewisville, N.C., a specialist in child development center design. KQC will subcontract with local firms to construct the building.

Also, the Jackson/Columbus firm of Johnson Bailey Henderson & McNeel will serve as local architect for the project.