Supporting Every Body: How Faculty and Students Increased Campus Lactation Spaces

Students are the center of every university, but at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), a public research university in the Rocky Mountains, they were also the push to make their campus a more equitable place for lactating parents. Spearheaded by the Student Leadership for Environmental Action Fund (LEAF)—whose mission is to “empower students to transform the campus community to create a more sustainable culture”—the student-led group coordinated with the University’s Lactation Support Program to purchase a Mamava XL lactation pod (formerly known as the ADA lactation pod) for their annual funding project. This is a story of what happens when student activism joins with a longstanding grassroots effort to improve campus lactation spaces.

Let students lead the way

In researching improved inclusivity on campus, “we heard from breastfeeding and chestfeeding parents that they wanted another lactation space on campus—one they didn’t have to walk too far to access,” says Emmy Scott, a UNC senior and grant coordinator for LEAF. Scott and other LEAF members soon discovered the problem—there was a lack of free rooms available for new lactation spaces. That’s how Scott was introduced to Alena Clark, Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, and co-director of the campus Lactation Support Program.

Connect with other lactivists

Alena Clark, known on campus as “the breastfeeding lady,” has worked tirelessly with her colleague, Yvette Lucero-Nguyen, since 2012 to secure lactation rooms on campus and build the Lactation Support Program. (There are currently nine rooms.) “Whenever I see an empty space, I email faculty and staff in those areas to see if we can turn it into a lactation room,” says Clark. “Too often faculty and administrators aren't aware of what breastfeeding and chestfeeding parents need. We’re an advocate for students who are too fearful to ask for what they need.” As soon as she heard about LEAF’s project to support a new lactation space, she and Yvette joined in to help. They had wanted a Mamava pod for years, but had lacked the funding. What they lacked in funds, however, they more than made up for in their in-depth knowledge of lactation space needs on campus.

Support well-being for every body

Placing the Mamava pod in the Michener Library was a joint decision between LEAF and the Lactation Support Program to ensure parents have a dedicated private space to pump or nurse on that side of the campus. The library—open until midnight every day and on the weekends—is also located near an auditorium that hosts public events. The LEAF team is proud of the difference they’ve made on their campus, and so is their advisor. “I always tell my students, we can figure something out,” says Chelse Romulo, an Assistant Professor of Geography, GIS, & Sustainability, and faculty advisor for LEAF. “Go to your grants office. Talk to who teaches the class on grant writing. Tell everyone what you’re doing. You never know who’s going to be connected.”