The planned Women’s Resource Center has ignited some debate on campus about the need for such a center.
On one side, students argue that the center will fill a void in the administration, the responsibility for which has previously fallen on a paid Student Government official and several volunteer student activists, namely the staff of Women’s Initiative. In opposition, others point out that this costly expenditure will, in some cases, create services that are already available on campus.
THOSE IN FAVOR
Former WI directors met with current WI staff Nov. 9 to discuss the debate on campus. Vanessa Mueller, former director of WI, whose term ended in spring 2008, led the meeting.
Mueller said one of the main benefits the WRC would offer is a paid professional staffer to be available to students with personal concerns.
“For example, one of the big issues our year was a lot of the [work study employees] were reporting awkward situations bordering on sexual harassment, and it was a concern because we didn’t know who we should be reporting it to,” she said. “Greek life has a person. Athletics has a person. [The Office of Multicultural Affairs] has a person. GLBTA has a person. ... There’s a clearly delineated person of contact in every one of these situations except this one.”
Mueller also recounted incidents in which students reported sexual assault to her as the WI director, though she had no formal training in rape-crisis counseling.
“[Victims] show up at your office at two in the morning because you’re there all the time,” Mueller said. “I think it’s very easy if it hasn’t happened to you to say, ‘oh there’s no need for this center.’ I can tell you there’s a need for this center here.”
The center would also ideally provide a resource library and advocacy for female professors in ensuring equal consideration for tenure, according to Mueller.
Mueller said that she, personally, had begun to set aside $100 from each of her paychecks for the Women’s Resource Center.
“I’ve put [the money] in a fund,” Mueller said. “... And it will stay there until I have something to donate it to ... I think that there are very few students and very few groups who have been so dedicated to one single thing for so long on this campus. And when it comes true I will happily earmark this money over to the center.”
Current SG President Andy MacCracken also spoke in favor of the WRC.
“Women’s resource centers have been introduced on campuses across the country,” MacCracken said. “We’re actually pretty far behind on that curve ... You look at the data, and it’s very clear that women have some issues that tend to gravitate towards that gender ... a women’s resource center would aim to address those needs by creating a place to go [for those needs].”
THOSE OPPOSED
Robert Ruszczyk, a junior in the School of Public Affairs, said he would not support the creation of a women’s resource center as it is currently proposed.
“Mostly, it’s because from what I’ve seen the people who are setting up the WRC are aiming for it to be only a women’s resource center,” Ruszczyk said. “It’s not opened up to the general student body, and the amount of money that is being spent on it can be spent elsewhere.”
Though the voices of the opposition exist on campus, the movement against the WRC is largely fragmented in comparison with the consolidated voice of the WI. Ruszczyk attributed the lack of organization to fear of being mislabeled by opponents.
“If we organize against it, we’re labeled sexist and chauvinistic when we’re really not,” Ruszczyk said.
Zach Lancet, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he felt the WRC would not offer anything new to students at AU.
“We already have a lot of resource centers all around campus, and it seems like we’re just throwing money at these problems, not even defining what is actually going to go on there,” Lancet said. “In every bathroom there’s a label that says if you’ve been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed you can call a certain number, you can call Public Safety, you can call your boss, you can call the Counseling Center ... Overall, I just don’t think it’s necessary, and I think it’s a waste of funding.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Former SG President Joseph F. Vidulich, Mueller and former SG Chief of Staff Joseph Pavel first put forth a formal proposal for the women’s center in September 2007.
This proposal cites the goals of the center as services and programming that fall under the four categories of “Support, Empowerment, Education and Advocacy.” It references three-pages worth of other institutions with similar centers, including two Patriot League institutions. The proposal also relates the creation of a women’s center to the mission statement of the Office of Campus Life.
The proposal listed a few reasons why the resource center was necessary. First, it suggests that the well-attended programming put on by WI in the past could be further improved “if there were university-employed professionals who could focus exclusively on these tasks.” Next, it highlights the interest in a center demonstrated previously by both students and faculty. It then says that students often feel uncomfortable reporting sexual assault and other issues to the Student Health Center or Counseling Center and that the WRC would offer a “safe place for students to come for information and referrals.” It then addresses the fact that under the Cleary Act, AU reported only one sexual assault in the 2005-2006 school year, going on to say that student interest in such events as the Take Back the Night campaign demonstrate an ongoing desire to “address those sexual assaults that do not occur on campus or occur on other university campuses” outside the limits of the Cleary Act.
The voting to include funding for the WRC in the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget passed in 2008, according to MacCracken.
“That all happened before my term started,” MacCracken said. “My job now, as I see it, is to identify a space [for the WRC] and make sure that there’s follow-through and not just that it gets done, but that it gets done in the right way.”
Mueller said that funding for the center would take effect in May 2010 and that she hoped the facility would be ready for students next fall.
You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.
