"In the last couple of years at Dudley House we've had about a half-dozen mothers that I can remember," Dingman says, adding that most of the mothers he can recall have had very different home lives than either Ocon or Payanzo.

"Most of them have been older women with grown children who returned to Harvard years after leaving," Dingman says.

One such woman is Suzanne Girlando '68-'96. Girlando left Harvard to get married and only returned to complete her degree after having three children.

Girlando, who commuted a total of 100 miles from and to her family's home in Fitchburg, Mass., each day, says that Harvard was very accommodating in providing for her transportation costs.

"One day my car died on the highway and I was without transportation," she says. "They provided me with a small grant to cover transportation that really helped me get my car back on the road."

A visual and environmental studies concentrator who spent half her weekends processing film for class and the other half caring for her son, Girlando was given a work-study job to help pay for college.

Since she and her husband lived with her parents, she had no arrangements with Harvard housing and was not on the meal plan. She usually brought a lunch to school.

Comparing Colleges

Other universities that report an equally small segment of undergraduate mothers in their student populations appear to provide even fewer resources than Harvard offers.

Columbia University, for example, refers undergraduates with children to area hospitals and agencies for child care, living accommodations and financial assistance. Mothers at Columbia, according to the school's Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Gemma Y. Campbell, may find themselves looking into local branches of WIC for food donations.

Mothers at Cornell University face a similar predicament. According to the Cornell Daily Sun, which recently examined the university's resources for pregnant women and young mothers, Cornell offers minimal resources. The student health center on campus has no obstetricians on staff, and the university provides no day-care services for students or university employees.

Most of the school's resources are geared toward pregnancy prevention. But, Cornell does offer counseling for students who have just found out they are pregnant and refers them to local obstetricians to ensure they receive proper prenatal care.

But even some schools with large student populations, like Boston University, have no housing, obstetrical or counseling services specifically for undergraduate parents.

"There are very few undergraduate parents, if any," says Colin D. Riley, associate in public relations at Boston University, adding that there are no official records kept of this statistic.

If a case of an undergraduate parent did arise, though, the dependent child would be factored into the undergraduate's financial aid package, Riley says.