Women's Center Forum for Texas Woman's University
Have you ever wondered why Texas Woman's University does not have a women's center? I am currently in my first year of graduate school at TWU and have often found myself thinking that we need a women's center on campus. Coming from an institution that had a women's center on campus, I found women's centers to be learning and community oriented places for students. Women's centers are primarily for women, but the population they serve is not only women. The assumption that women's centers only serve women is a tough hurdle to overcome when you are advocating for a women's center in a primarily women's university. How do we overcome this barrier? At this point, I have found it hard to overcome or even think about advocating for one when there is so much bureaucracy. I would greatly appreciate any comments on how to overcome this assumption of women's centers.
posted by sayleshannon @ 12:51 PM
7 Comments:
Congratulations on this discussion. Please go to www.womenscenter.utoledo.edu for a look at the Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. As the director, my experience is that 1) Community support is essential. The Eberly Center is an endowed Center (enough for scholarships and programming but not enough for salaries) and this fact has made it impossible for the University to erase us even though they have tried . WE are on our 28th year. We also have a community/campus advisory board which does fund raising for us. 2)The Center has the advantage of being able to respond more quickly to emerging women's issues on the campus and in the community than the Department of Women & Gender Studies does. This is simply because the Department is tied to the teaching of courses but the Center can develop programming and services to respond to issues. 3) The director needs to be a good politician and manage both campus and community gender politics and yet be willing to risk her job. 4) Supportive and collaborative relationships between the Center and the Department as well as other women faculty and students is critical.
Good luck.
Patricia A. Murphy, Interim Director
Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Dear Patricia,
Thank you for your comments. Your suggestions are great!
Thank you,
Sally
I think the Texas Woman's University does not need anything else for women. We already have goals to serve mainly women, we have women's classes in just about every subject as well as in the core and guys already feel excluded enough, all they need is one more reason to feel like they are being decriminated against here.
Even though some may feel that men are discriminated at TWU, I do not think that they are. In addition, I think that maybe a gender resource center may be a better way to start a program that looks to make a hub for various resources on campus and to promote gender equity. As a woman student, I do not think that there are enough resources for both men and women. In addition, the resources that are offered are difficult to find and scattered throughout the campus. I think that a gender resources center would help create a community place to find information on all types of issues, including equity.
Hi! I think a resource center would be a good idea. I agree that helping areas do seem scattered around campus; adding another center for assistance would probably increase the scattered feeling, but in my opinon it's nice that way. I'm not entirely sure about what a woman's resource center would provide, though. Any locations that offer some or any kind of resource is good! I have to disagree with the first anonymous post, which said that we don't need anything else for women. If you mean that what we need is more resources for everyone, that's cool. Any person who comes to the university probably knows that there will be quite a bit of focus on women, since it is called Texas Woman's University. If a person feels discriminated against I think that person should talk to people about their feelings, in order to see some changes made. But it's important to note that the women's center is going to be for everyone, not just women, as it was said in the original post. I think to get the word out about it being for everyone there should be meetings, of course, and then perhaps posters put up, flyers, or both. Also, having instructors make announcements in class really give myself the heads up about activities and topics around campus. Maybe it would be a good idea to get some organizations together to have a larger meeting about the subject. Just some thoughts.
I think that it is awesome that you want to do something like this for our university. However, my concern is how many peope would actually use the women's center to their benefit. I can see that it would be helpful to some women and some men, but I really thought that that was why we had a counseling center. I'm not trying to be rude or mean, and I do think it's very respectable that you care enough about the lives of the students here to go through the effort of blogging about a Women's Center. I simply worry that after all the trouble enough people would not take advantage of it's services to pay for the man power to run it. I just think that with our campus being made primarily of commuter students that it would be hard to get a large following for this. I do wish you all the luck though, and I hope you can make it work to benefit everyone's lives. Good Luck!!
I think that it is important to make a distinction that a counseling center does not provide all of the necessary needs for students. Counseling is a necessary program at any university, but that it does not necessarily promote community or perhaps a student may feel more comfortable talking to a student. For example, at my previous university, I was a sexual assault peer educator for the women's center. I was extensively trained to talk with students and offer them resource options. Therefore, if I was at a party or even out with a bunch of friends they could utilize me as a resource then. In addition, we did presentation with campus organizations, sororities, fraternities, and in classrooms on sexual assault.
Some other programs that we did was a silent witness project. If you have not heard of this project put silent witness project in google and it will come up. This is another program directed at ending domestic violence. We took red silhouettes into the classrooms and red the stories of women and children in our area that had been killed by domestic/sexual violence. After we read the stories, we talked about strategic ways men and women could end domestic violence, resources, and promoted the services at the counseling center. Our counseling center and women's center worked very closely together and each benefited from the expertise and programs of the other.
Some other women's centers are trying to get lactation stations at the universities so that mothers do not feel uncomfortable. For more programs women's centers are instituting, I would recommend that you visit the NWSA resources link on the blog.
Another important point is that women's centers can provide volunteering opportunities within in the university that are around women's issues. For example, the women's center could be a liaison between domestic crisis shelters, girl scouts, and a variety of other women's issues. I always found it very beneficial for teachers to be able to contact one location and have someone help set-up volunteer opportunities for students. This makes service learning much more possible.
I understand your concern with the large number of commuter students. However, many of these students are non-traditional students and could benefit greatly from the programs and opportunities a women's center could offer. For instance, a website would allow that connection to not be so blurred. What do you think about the idea of a virtual women's center as a beginning. This is a new idea that is becoming more popular. Thank you for your wonderful comments, please continue to visit the blog and contribute to this important dialogue.
Post a Comment
<< Home