On Feb. 18, a group of 25 students, faculty and staff gathered in Boren Lounge to discuss a proposal that could change the way Guilford deals with issues of gender, sexual health and sexual assault. The proposal focused on Guilford’s need for a Gender and Sexual Wellness Resource Center. The center would provide counseling, information and support for anyone in the Guilford community dealing with issues including (but not exclusive to) domestic violence, sexual harassment and men’s anti-sexism work.

“Having worked with Students Against Rape Culture (SARC) the last few years, I have noticed how few resources we have,” said senior Katie Yow, the proposal’s author. “There are a lot of people doing a lot of good things, but they aren’t coordinated. We have a lot of gaps. We are the only school I’ve looked into that doesn’t have a women’s resource center. Most schools have some kind of gender office. We don’t have anything like that.”

Ideally, the center would include a well-stocked multi-media resource room and gathering area, a private office space for consultations, a restroom, and a kitchen. The director would work from the office with support from work study students and an intern.

The director’s responsibilities would include providing workshops, class lectures and consultative services, maintaining a supportive environment in the center, and collaborating with other on-campus departments.

Although the proposal has the full support of the administration, current monetary strictures prevent the college from providing the required budget. The center would cost $70,000 – for salaries, office supplies and community events.

“The next step of the proposal is to organize grants, because there is no institutional money for this and I do mean absolutely none,” Yow said. “Unfortunately, people aren’t generally excited about grants for salary and the college has a full-time employee hiring freeze. The best-case scenario is that this gets off the ground and we get $55,000 a year to run it.”

Previous incarnations of women’s and gender support centers have been significantly cheaper. But most Guilford organizations that deal with these issues are either student run, and therefore non-sustainable, or their proponents have retired.

“Guilford had a Women’s Studies program early, about 35 years before most other schools, and so a lot of this work got integrated into the staff at the time,” said Kathryn Schmidt, assistant professor of sociology and Yow’s adviser. “It was working for so long that there wasn’t as big a need. It’s not that we are behind; it’s that we are out of sync with the rest of the (schools). It’s time we catch up with the next wave.”

Twenty-five people actively participated in the hour-long forum, including many members of PRIDE, SARC and Voices for Planned Parenthood (VOX). The topic most frequently touched on was that a women’s resource center wasn’t broad enough to fit the needs of the Guilford community. Yow’s proposal uses gender specific words (her, she), but the mandate of the center would include all genders.

“Transgendered people have a history of working for change like this and then being (ignored),” said junior Sarah Eisenberg, an active member of PRIDE. “I’d like to be involved in the center and see through transgender issues. I think this is really good work. Often times people think that just talking about an issue will change something and it seems like this is a good way to do actual work.”

As the forum concluded, Yow emphasized that the point of the gathering was community input so that the center will be shaped by the community’s needs, not just her ideas. If you have any ideas, thoughts, questions or comments contact Yow at [email protected].