"For those of you who were here 20 years ago, in 1988, let me remind you where it all began," said Cornell Vice President for Human Resources Mary George Opperman, opening the ninth annual Life Quality Meeting Oct. 15 at Robert Purcell Community Center. "It began with a Task Force for Working Families that was appointed by then-Senior Vice President James E. Morley and led by the late Joycelyn Hart."

Opperman then thanked three staff members from that original task force who were in the audience -- Kristine DeLuca, Danilee Poppensiek and Lauran Jacoby -- for their tireless efforts on behalf of working families. That task force, Opperman explained, had developed a list of 39 recommendations to address work and family issues. In the intervening years, Cornell has taken action on all 39 recommendations, including the new Cornell Child Care Center, which was recently opened to increase "the availability of accessible, affordable day care."

The Life Quality program commemorated 20 years of Cornell's commitment to helping staff, faculty and students meet their personal, professional and family responsibilities. Attendees included members of the Cornell community as well as local organizational leaders and featured speakers from other organizations and universities.

Linda Mason '76, founder and chair of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which operates the new child-care center, addressed the future of child care at universities in her keynote address. She noted that corporations rather than universities have led the way in adopting work/life practices, citing several reasons: the decentralized organizational structure of universities; the differing needs of faculty and staff; the lack of data on employee families; and the expectations placed on faculty members who are going through the tenure process.

But, she said, work/life issues have a definite impact on younger faculty: 25 percent of young faculty consider relocating because of a lack of child care. Mason also noted that the most important work/life programs and policies are the least expensive: flexible work hours, mentoring, tenure-clock extensions and temporary reductions in workload.

Brad Harrington, executive director of the Boston College Center for Work and Family Institute, seconded Mason's observations that the most effective work/life options are inexpensive. He noted some compelling trends from the 2008 U.S. Census that highlight the need for greater attention to work/life issues:

More surprisingly, and in many cases more devastating psychologically, he said, are the increasing needs for eldercare: in 2002, 35 percent of employees reported having significant eldercare responsibilities.

Between the two speakers were breakout sessions that addressed specific work/life issues. Barbara McMahon, practice leader at LifeCare Inc., one of the largest privately owned employee benefits organizations in the country, reiterated the rising need for adult care, noting that one of every five adults is now providing unpaid care to someone age 18 and over, and that employee absences and turnover relating to adult care now cost American employers as much as $33 billion per year.

Giselle Kovary, co-founder and managing partner of N-Gen People Performance Inc., outlined the general characteristics of the four generations currently in the workforce -- the traditionalists, 63 years old and over; the baby boomers, 44-62; the Gen X-ers, 28-43; and Gen Y, ages 18-27 -- challenging participants to examine their own generational filters that they bring to the workplace every day.

Barbara Gniewek, principal and national practice leader at Deloitte and Touche, provided an overview of a program that her company has implemented to help better match workers' competencies with various positions. Instead of moving up a "corporate ladder" through an organization, individuals at Deloitte and Touche can move through a "corporate lattice"-- up or down or sliding over, as their lives change.

Flexibility should be seen as something that results from a partnership between the employee and employer, said Cali Yost, president and founder of Work+Life Fit Inc.

The Life Quality Meeting closed with a panel discussion among HR leaders from the University of Pennsylvania, Yale and Harvard Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who discussed what their institutions were doing about work/life concerns.

Reflecting on the meeting, Jacoby said, "It's really satisfying to see how the university has held to its commitment to working families ever since I first served on the task force. I've found it extremely rewarding to watch our recommendations -- especially with the building of the child care center -- become reality."