|
|
Women’s Center marks decade of assistance |
|
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
 | Wayne
|
by McLEAN DOBBINS
Intern News Reporter
Appalachian State University Women’s Center will celebrate a decade of service with a 10-year anniversary alumni reunion.
The invitation-only event will take place Saturday, April 26 from 7:30 to 11 p.m. in Whitewater room of Plemmons Student Union.
The reunion will bring together both past and present Women’s Center volunteers.
“We were started in [1998] in response to the fact that in the years around [1998] there were a lot of
sexual assaults on campus –a frightening amount –and women did not feel safe on campus, and that’s
not okay,” senior business management and English major Natasha F. Wayne said. “So, women
needed a place where they could go and be safe, or feel safe, and get
help if they had been sexually assaulted, or raped, or stalked, or
anything that made them feel like they were not safe on campus.”
The Women’s Center helps students by providing information and resources for counseling services
and legal advice in cases of sexual assault, rape, stalking, violence, or harassment.
In addition to events promoting sexual assault awareness, stalking and violence awareness, the center
presents safety programming designed to help make women and men aware of things they can do to
protect themselves.
For example, Wayne suggested walking with a friend when going across campus at night, making sure
friends know where you will be when going to a party, and carrying a cell phone at all times.
Earlier in the semester, students began working to locate former volunteers.
“When our 10-year came around, we thought this is an amazing opportunity for us to integrate the old
with the new and try to embrace all aspects of who we are, what we’ve been for the past 10 years, and
what we want to be for the next 10 years,” Wayne said. “So the easiest way to do that it seemed like
was to get everybody together in one room.”
About 50 alumni and former volunteers are expected to attend the anniversary celebration.
“I’m really pleased with the turnout from our [alumni], that they’re still so adamantly interested in what
we’re doing here,” Wayne said. “I love that the women who have worked with us in the past still care so
much about what we do.”
Wayne has helped at the center for three years and said a friend who was also a volunteer encouraged
her to volunteer herself.
“She had been raped and she was dealing with that by helping other women deal with it, and I felt very
moved by her story,” Wayne said.
Volunteers bring their own unique experiences and perspectives to the center to help make a difference
for women on campus and in the community.
“My family’s always been very involved in the feminist movement. My great grandmother and my great
aunt on my mom’s side both were very involved in the Equal Rights Amendment, trying to get that
passed…they’ve had a lot of influence on how I think about things,” freshman geology and sustainable
development major Jessica L. Hustace said.
Although the center sees 20 to 40 visitors a week, they hope to attract more by revamping its office
space in the Plemmons Student Union.
“It’s very easy to walk past our office and I feel like a lot of people who come in are completely
shocked that we’re here because we’re just so easily overlooked,” Wayne said. “So, we’re really trying
to push within our center to find a way that we can make ourselves more easily recognized.”
Plans for the center include getting new carpet, furniture and paint, most of which will take place over
the summer.
Hustace said after researching the effects of paint colors on mood, volunteers agreed on shades of
blue and green because they are supposed to have a calming effect on the body.
The center has also been working on a new logo and hopes to unveil it at the event.
After voting on several designs submitted by volunteers, the center decided on Hustace’s design.
They are currently working with a graphic designer to finalize the logo.
This do-it-yourself mentality has been an important part of the center’s philosophy since the beginning.
Unlike women’s centers at bigger universities that rely on paid faculty, Appalachian’s center is run by
volunteers.
“We really had to fight to get a Women’s Center here on campus and the fact that we’ve done so much,
stayed so long, and that we are volunteer-run is really significant,” Hustace said.
Current volunteers are well aware of the amount of hard work it took to create the Women’s Center and
hope to gain advice from past volunteers for the future.
The center has benefited from the diverse individuals that have made up its ranks over the years.
“I feel like the Women’s Center kind of changes a little every year based on the volunteers that we
have,” Wayne said. “Every time we get someone new, we get new ideas, new projects, ways to change
what we’ve already done. But we still hold very solidly to our core values.
Trackback(0)
 |
|
|
News 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
