Junior faculty members often feel pressure to choose between the demands of the tenure track and the limitations of their biological clocks. In an effort to expand the options available to such up-and-coming professors, Provost John Etchemendy recently introduced a new financial aid program for faculty families with young children.

At the April 19 Faculty Senate meeting, Etchemendy introduced the Junior Faculty Child Care Assistance Program, targeted specifically at young faculty members who are raising families while simultaneously working toward tenure appointments.

“During the seven years in which junior faculty are working toward the tenure decision, we expect them to establish an international reputation as one of the leaders in their field,” Etchemendy said at the meeting. “If they fail to meet this expectation, their position at Stanford is not continued, yet these are the very same years that coincide with the time that many women most naturally start families.”

This convergence of demands is one of the reasons why the relative number of women in academia remains low, according to Etchemendy, who added that he believes that the availability of affordable, available childcare for untenured faculty with young children “has demonstrably higher stakes” than for any other subset of the Stanford population.

Etchemendy also said that current childcare programs are inadequate: Though several childcare centers are available, there is a shortage of spaces.

In an effort to offset childcare expenses, the new program will provide a salary supplement for untenured assistant and associate professors who have children ages five or younger. To qualify for eligibility, the spouses of these faculty members must also have full-time jobs.

While officials in the WorkLife Office — which will oversee the program — said that specific details about eligibility and reimbursement would not be available until later this month, Etchemendy announced at the meeting that he expected the maximum reimbursement per family to range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the income of the faculty member.

“When Nobel laureate Rosalyn Yalow spoke to a Women in Science group at a major university many years ago, her opening statement was, ‘The primary problem is childcare. Everything else is secondary,’” Etchemendy said. “It’s our hope that this program will help address that problem for Stanford’s untenured faculty.”