New Child Center Replaces Sorority Parking Lot

By January 24, 2012

The Jean Tyson Child Development Center, now under construction on Douglas Avenue, is slated to replace the child development center and the infant development center in fall 2012, officials said.

The new center will hold more students than the previous buildings, said Mike Johnson, vice chancellor of Facilities Management.

“Combined capacity is probably 30 or 35 children from very young up to 4 years old, before they go to kindergarten. This capacity in the new facility is 144, so a significant increase in capability,” Johnson said.

The Child Development Center will also have space for teaching and observation for students and faculty.

“It’s also an academic teaching facility, and the way we’ve built it, [students] have observation rooms where they can observe children without the children knowing,” Johnson said. “It’s an academic center to train and teach people that will deal with children as they develop and grow.”

Some sorority members find the construction to be a burden, which is being built on what used to be Lot 36, a parking lot behind Zeta Tau Alpha and Delta Delta Delta.

“They have to park behind Kappa in that tiny green lot, so it’s so hard to find any spot behind Kappa,” said Rachel Ricca, Kappa Kappa Gamma resident. “The closest we get is across the street behind faculty or behind Chi Alpha.”

Other girls are hesitant to park along Douglas Street amid its steady flow of traffic.

“This semester I had to start parking in the street instead of in our parking lot,” said Jessica Brown, Alpha Delta Pi resident. “I’ve seen so many hit and runs just on our street alone that I wish the school had more lots open.”

Maggie Jo Pruitt, a Kappa Kappa Gamma resident, said she once spent more than an hour searching for parking behind the sorority houses.

“There is only enough room for one lane of traffic on the street they are building on and it’s hard to get off that street. The construction trucks are always driving so it’s nearly impossible for traffic to flow both ways,” Pruitt said.