NIH On Diversity & Child Care

By way of the Chronicle news blog:

The National Institutes of Health has released new guidance about its policies on diversity and on child care.

One set of guidelines, or "frequently asked questions," released Friday, concerns the NIH's efforts to expand the pool of candidates eligible for its training grants that were historically reserved for minority students...Another set of "frequently asked questions" describes the circumstances under which universities may use the agency's grants to finance child care and parental leave for scientists who receive NIH grants.

Seems these guidelines will protect the NIH from knuckleheads like Roger Clegg and will prevent universities from dumping their responsibilities to provide child care to their employees on the shoulders of the NIH.

More like this

"Any aftercare program should include teaching children the fine points of operating a Rainin pipetman. These skills are invaluable and fun to the child in learning about numbers and the use and interpretation of a decimal point. NIH grant funds that support child care could then be recovered by child research assistants working in the laboratories of the parent(s)."