WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Purdue University Early Learning is open to replacing Indiana as the operator of one of its near-campus day-care facilities, after the company announced earlier this month it would close the center, President Mung Chiang said Monday.
A new operator could, in theory, keep open the soon-to-be-shuttered Purdue Early Care and Education Center, from which ELI announced it would be out by April.
“There are actually other operators,” Chiang told faculty at Monday’s University Senate meeting. “ELI will remain an operator, but there are other operators in our state, and we’re looking forward to them coming in to negotiate.”
As of April, the Indianapolis-based company, through a subsidiary, operated Purdue’s three near-campus day centers, including Purdue ECEC and the Patty Ziske Early Care and Education Center about a mile north of campus.
Purdue ECEC has a capacity of 120 children, with about 100 of those places filled. But in a Jan. 15 letter, ELI CEO Erin Kiesling cited a “challenging funding environment” and difficulty filling the center’s spots as reasons for the closure.
The children, she told parents, would instead be moved to ELI’s other center about a mile north of campus.
“Early education providers across Indiana are facing a very challenging funding environment, and Purdue ECEC operating Early Education Indiana is not immune to these challenges,” Kiesling said.
At Monday’s Senate meeting, Chiang tried to downplay faculty concerns that could seriously harm child care options in West Lafayette.
The university has no plans to “repurpose” the building or land currently operated by ELI, Chiang said, and administrators are open to finding ways to keep it open as a day-care center without ELI’s involvement.
He did not specify which companies, if any, might take over the center or how soon.
The scheduled closing comes amid a worsening child care shortage in West Lafayette, which city officials have worked to address in recent years.
A 2024 study commissioned by the city found that there is an “unmet need” for day-care options in the area around campus and could face a shortage of 75 to 125 available spaces — a conservative estimate.
“There are clear gaps in meeting childcare needs, and these challenges will only increase as regional economies grow,” the report said.
Three facilities near Purdue can hold a total of 378 children, according to a university report from the same year. The closure of Purdue ECEC, however, could reduce that to 258 and nearly double the lack of West Lafayette.
It is unclear how ECI plans to move all of the center’s children to the Jischke site, which has about 150 spots.
Purdue’s Ben and Maxine Miller Child Development Laboratory School is already at capacity for 100 children, said Kimberly Updegraff, professor of family science. His department runs the center, which he estimates has a waiting list of more than 60 families.
She said without more available child care options, she worries Purdue will struggle to hire faculty and staff with families.
“How can we assure them that they can come to a place like Purdue and get high-quality care for their children?” she said. “How can Purdue be part of the solution, instead of increasing the incredible child care shortage in the region?”
Jessica Robertson, Purdue’s vice president of auxiliary services, said the closing was out of the university’s hands, with declining enrollment a major motivation.
ECI has seen a 40% drop in parents willing to enroll their children at the center in recent years, she said.
A 2024 university initiative relieved ECI of $80,000 of its annual operating costs and helped the company hire new part-time employees, but Purdue’s efforts still haven’t been enough to change market dynamics.
“If those dynamics had changed, and there was demand … it could have been a different outcome,” she said. “Purdue will continue to look for a change of pace.”
Kyle Haynes, a political science professor who enrolls his children in Purdue ECEC, said he believes the center was too understaffed to support any increase in enrollment, and that staff turnover at the site only exacerbated the problem.
“The demand is going elsewhere, because early education in Indiana, frankly, is not doing well,” he said.
But Robertson disagreed, arguing that parents on the waiting list at the center were turning down enrollment offers for children.
“It’s not necessarily that our rooms are understaffed or closed,” she said. “There hasn’t been that demand or the right time for families to take the open spaces at the center.”
This article originally appeared in the Lafayette Journal and Courier: Chiang: Purdue open to replace operator at closed day-care center
