The General Assembly, the student body legislature, passed a bill Friday night that makes the Women's Initiative a fully recognized department within the Student Confederation ending months of contentious debate, GA Speaker Gordon Simonett said.
The initiative is now an official cabinet position with bylaws under the president and eligible for a budget, account and program funding from the SC, according to Tina Stanton, director of communications for the initiative.
Previously, the initiative was established by an executive order at the start of each administration, Stanton said.
"This bill gives us a lot more legitimacy and more influence on campus," Stanton said. "Any president could have decided to abolish it. This makes the initiative a lot more secure."
School of Communication representative Tim Meyer, an opponent of the bill, said each president and administration should have the freedom to shape their cabinet however they choose.
Created in spring 2001, the purpose of the initiative is to address issues that affect women within the campus community, Director Michelle Brownstein said.
The Initiative is a policy organization, she said. "We make sure that any policies take into account the fact that this campus is 70 percent women," Brownstein said.
A bill securing bylaws for the initiative was originally before the GA's Finance Committee in October but was tabled for eight weeks and labeled "unanimous unfavorable," Simonett said.
That meant the bill could not go to the GA floor for debate or a vote, he said.
"People were frustrated and very unhappy because there was a lot of general public support," Simonett said. "Not one woman advocated against the bill."
Opponents of the first bill claimed the initiative was a special interest and should go through the AU Club Council to gain recognition.
"Some of the problems we ran into were very very semantic issues like, 'why do you call it the Women's Initiative. That's gender bias,'" Stanton said.
A new bill, authored by Class of 2005 Representative Marc Malon, was reintroduced to the GA at its Nov. 23 meeting - Simonett's first as speaker.
Simonett referred it to the Government Operations Committee for review.
The new bill was labeled as "favorable" and was approved by voice vote Friday night.
"If you look at the other SC departments, all of them represent I'd say consensus support and represent all students," Meyer said. "I don't feel the Women's Initiative does that."
An amendment by Class of 2007 Representative Ben Murray was proposed but would have included a "sunset clause" mandating the reevaluation of the initiative every year as opposed to every two years for other SC departments.
Meyer said he supported the amendment because it offered greater oversight of the Initiative.
However, the amendment was withdrawn before a vote was called.
"The amendment would have given the impression that the GA doesn't trust this department enough to let it function like the others," SOC Representative Beth Degi said.
Degi, a co-sponsor of the bill and transfer student, said the turnaround by the GA was due to a shift in ideology.
"The new body is more representative of attitudes on campus," she said. "A more liberal body and a new Finance Committee chair also helped."
Meyer said there are other ways to address women's issues without actually creating an Initiative such as through his recently introduced SAFEWALK legislation, which would address both women's rights and campus safety concerns.
Stanton said the initiative's immediate priority is campus safety, given the recent attacks.
They also plan to complete their testing of AU's blue light system, bring in speakers on personal safety and conduct the "Women's Initiative Challenge" in March -Women's History Month - in which they challenge each AU club and department to incorporate some aspect of women's history.
Long-term goals include a budget that includes specific mention of a women's health center within the future campus health center, Stanton said.
Top national schools like New York University, Columbia and Ohio State all have women's centers and initiatives and all are incredibly successful, Stanton said.
"We're hoping to build off of and model their successes," she said.
