For most students, getting out of bed and going to Lecture Hall in the morning is hard enough. For students who are also parents, this process can be a whole lot harder.

The Binghamton University Parents Collective (BUPC) was created in order to help these students manage all of their coursework in addition to their parenting responsibilities. Over 70 BU students currently have children and the BUPC is in place to facilitate a community for them.

The BUPC is a part of the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), the graduate version of the Student Association, and it receives its funds from fees graduate students pay yearly. However, the BUPC is not only available for graduate students, as any student with children can join.

The Campus Pre-School and Early Childhood Center is a day care resource for children up to age five offered by the BUPC, which was allotted $6,000 for the 2015-2016 school year by the GSO. Monthly activities are also offered, such as trips to the Binghamton Zoo, outings at the park and apple picking at orchards around Binghamton.

For students like Bingwei Liu, former president of the BUPC and a Ph.D. candidate studying electrical and computer engineering, dividing time between school and family has been a constant struggle, making it necessary to use all available resources.

“The major issue is time, time to take care of my family and study for my research,” Liu said. “So in my first two years of taking courses here, I was usually very busy. I had to depend on my wife to take care of my daughter. We also used the Campus Pre-School whenever we could — that really helped.”

The pre-school is open Monday through Friday while classes are in session and follows the University calendar schedule. The price ranges from $799 per month for five-day, full-time coverage to anywhere from $240 to $480 for half-day and two-day-a-week coverage. However, parents are not able to drop their kids off and pick them up at anytime throughout the day, which can lead to complications with their schedules. If a student chooses to utilize the day care, their child must stay for the full day.

“The Campus Pre-School just doesn’t have the flexibility I need for my schedule,” said Fatima Irshaidat, a Ph.D. candidate studying systems science and industrial engineering. “I wish we had a drop-in day care on campus because many things come up for mothers or fathers, and a drop-in day care is available at other universities, but not here.”

In addition to the day care center, the BUPC also offers a lactation room, located in the basement of the Old University Union. This offers mothers on-campus a private place to breastfeed their children and pump breast milk.

Liu said that the purpose of the BUPC is to help students with children succeed, and they hope that their efforts can go past the day care and help these students with whatever they may require.

“We can help [students] with child care, how to handle paying for day care and advice on where to take their children to play,” Liu said. “They’re welcome to come to us.”