Because of the hard work of a dedicated group of women and mothers across campus, another lactation suite has found its home on UCA soil.
The new suite, in room 414 of Irby Hall, was accomplished by members of the Lactation Committee — which opened the first suite in Old Main in 2015.
Chairwoman Elizabeth Gayfield said the committee was “formed to create safe spaces for breastfeeding families,” and that it functions under the auspices of the Diversity Advisory Committee.
“The purpose of the UCA Lactation Suites is to provide breastfeeding families with rooms to express, collect and store breast milk,” Gayfield said. “I became chairwoman in the fall of 2021, and I work with committee members to ensure that the suites are stocked with lactation-related supplies and resources, including diapers and wipes from the Bear Bottoms Program.”
Webster appointed Dr. K. Adele Okoli, assistant professor of French in affiliation with the African & African American Studies and Gender Studies, to the Lactation Committee in 2019. Okoli was still breastfeeding her daughter at the time.
“As a single and sole-parenting, working mother, I encountered many challenges to pumping on campus during workdays so I could keep breastfeeding for the length of time I felt was best for my daughter. It’s extremely difficult when there’s no designated space for that purpose at work,” Okoli said.
“After having experienced these challenges, I made it a goal to help make sure future generations of UCA faculty, staff, and students in my small corner of campus do not experience the same challenges during an already exhausting postpartum time. How we choose to nourish our babies is a fundamental human right. At UCA we have a strong community working to protect and support each other in that basic and most human decision,” she said.
“I approached the Dean of my college on behalf of the Lactation Committee a few months before the pandemic to request that a vacated office space be made available for a lactation suite in Irby Hall, the building in which many humanities faculty work and teach,” Okoli said.
The committee works together to make sure the suites are properly furnished, maintained, secure and stocked with items like pump cleaning supplies and postpartum wellness brochures, she said.
“The accommodation of breastfeeding is a cross-campus work-life issue, and retention issue, for many parents of infants across the campus populations of our faculty, staff and students. Private lactation suites are particularly crucial for the well-being of part-time, adjunct and contingent faculty and staff, who often do not have their own permanent and private office spaces when they come to work on campus,” Okoli said. “Lactation suites are key to a culture of wellness, diversity, inclusion and care at UCA. These small spaces make a world of difference in the daily work lives of those who need them.”
Before Gayfield held the reins of the committee, Dr. Angela Webster, Chief Diversity Officer, Associate Vice President of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion, and Diversity Advisory Committee Chair, worked with UCA administrators to find eligible locations on campus for lactation suites, Gayfield said.
“We seek spaces that will serve internal and external constituents to include students, employees and campus guests. Having a suite in Irby Hall is a major accomplishment, because nearly every undergraduate student takes a course in that building at some point,” Gayfield said.
“She also met with the governing bodies to obtain funding to furnish the rooms,” Gayfield said. “Lactation suites have recently been included in the new construction on campus, including the Integrated Health Sciences building and the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts.”
So far, lactation suites can be found in the Brewer Hegeman Conference Center, Estes Stadium, Integrated Health Sciences Building, Irby Hall, Lewis Science Center, Old Main and Torreyson Library.
While a suite in each building on campus would “be helpful to breastfeeding families so they have less competition for the available spaces,” Gayfield said the committee must work at the pace that its budget and permissions allow.
In order to furnish the suites, members of the committee and students got creative with their collaboration. Okoli said, “My colleague on the committee, Susan Sobel, even fabric-painted a chair we were able to reclaim and recycle from a retirement pile. Another colleague, Dr. Jennifer Parrack helped clean the suite to get it ready for opening.”
Once students, staff and faculty were welcomed back onto campus after pandemic shutdowns, Okoli authored a Faculty Senate Resolution to “secure some of the funding used to furnish the suite with necessary items, such as a refrigerator,” Okoli said.
She also had the idea of involving student artists in the furnishing of the Irby suite, and communicated with Feminist Union RSO officers and artists Hannah Bender and Lindey Wittig on their creation of original artwork, Okoli said.
“That makes it a calm, welcoming, beautiful space for parents in our campus community who need to pump during their workdays at UCA,” Okoli said. “It took about three years and a whole lot of collective work to see this dream come true. The creation of this suite was truly the group effort of a team of so many amazing and tenacious women on campus,” Okoli said.