Photo courtesy of Xavier University | Xavier’s campus is now home to a private lactation room in the CLC for mothers on campus.
Xavier University opened its first lactation room for nursing mothers in the Conaton Learning Commons (CLC) on Monday, Oct. 23.
After much conversation, the human resource department and the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion (OIDI) at Xavier wanted to ensure it was meeting the needs of the nursing mothers who were spending time on campus and decided to create the new room.
The lactation room was created to show Xavier’s continued commitment to supporting nursing mothers as they return to work or studies.
“I think if there is a large number of nursing mothers on staff in the CLC or part of the student body, a lactation room would be a good idea for them to have privacy when necessary,” senior Mackenzie Stenroos said.
The room is located in the CLC in room 409 and is available for any mother who needs to use it. In order to reserve the lactation room, students, faculty and staff will need to go to the Employee Hub, click on the library icon and go to the right side of the page and click on Group Study Rooms. A PDF file will open and provide information on how to reserve the room through the student or staff’s Xavier email.
Many students are happy that there is a lactation room on campus for nursing mothers and are hoping there will be more lactation rooms in different buildings in the future.
“I think the addition of a lactation room in the CLC would provide a comfortable atmosphere for students, faculty and staff who need it,” senior Kate Frank said. “It would be a good addition to campus in order to be more inclusive for those members of Xavier’s campus with children. Alternately, I feel this addition would have very little downside to campus due to low cost of maintaining a lactation room.”
“I think this is kind of cool,” senior Megan Hall said. “It will be helpful for professors and students to have a good place to go when they need to pump.”
The lactation room was put into place because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to pump or breastfeed.
Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, to be used for this purpose.
“I think this is a good idea,” senior Kyra Buffi said. “I don’t believe there are any other lactation rooms on campus, so for any new mother who may be attending or visiting Xavier, there should be a comfortable and safe location for her and her baby.”
By: Erica Lampert ~Staff Writer~