Women’s center needs defined purpose before it’s created
At the end of January, Syracuse University’s Committee on Women’s Concerns sent an e-mail out to 3000 students relating to the need to create a women’s center at Syracuse University.
Women’s centers already exist on many university campuses around the nation. The Women’s Center at Northwestern University hosts various programs like self-defense classes, Take Back the Night and even a Take Your Daughter to Work Day. The Women’s Center at Duke University hosts car repair workshops and panel discussions on eating disorders.
Granted, Syracuse University already has a lot of these types of programs, they are just hosted under different departments or branches of the university. At first it seems kind of redundant to create an entity for these programs that already exist, but there is no centralized place for women to come together. Opening a women’s center would be a good step by the university to combat the sexism that still permeates our society. Women’s struggle for equality is hardly over, and establishing a safe space for support and discussion would be the kind of progressive move SU needs.
If the Committee on Women’s Concerns sees enough student and faculty interest in a women’s center, then it could be an asset to the campus. Currently, the potential functions of SU’s women’s center aren’t known, though committee co-chair Martha Hanson said it would be a, ‘safe place to go to, emotionally and physically.’ That is hardly enough of a mission statement to drive a progressive hub. The women’s center would need a clearly defined purpose that is in touch with the difficult and sometimes controversial topics facing university women today.
The LGBT center is a good example of centralizing resources and programs and making them easily available to the LGBT community at SU. It hosts relevant events both on and off campus under one name and out of its house on Ostrom Avenue. The Committee of Women’s Concerns would be wise to follow the lead of a successful program like the LGBT center to establish a successful and long overdue women’s program.
