Author: Katie Presley
Last Thursday Occidental’s Center for Gender Equity (CGE) opened its doors to campus for the first time, serving snacks and cake in Stewie’s Lower Lounge and informing the campus community about gender issues and resources on campus.
This semester is the CGE’s first on campus after a late August move-in, although as a project it has been in the works for almost a year. Michelle Saldana, Program Coordinator for the Office of Community Life, had the specific job of developing and creating the CGE.
“I was hired to assist in the transition from the Women’s Center (WC) on campus into what was going to be the Women’s Resource Center,” Saldana said. “However, we looked at what student needs were on campus, and saw there was a need to create a space that was more inclusive to all students.”
The Women’s Center until last year served as a resource library and residence for campus women and feminists. It was closed after the 2007-2008 school year and is now in preparations to become an alumni house, according to the College’s Master Plan.
“Dean Avery saw the need to continue the services the WC was offering, [but] a Women’s Resource Center only focuses on issues affecting one gender,” said Saldana. “There hasn’t been a space for dialogue regarding masculinity and transgender issues yet on campus.”
Occidental’s CGE was constructed to compare with similar programs at UC Davis and UC Berkeley, both of which have well-established Gender Resource Centers.
“This space is to educate students and provide resources and a safe space,” Saldana said. According to the CGE brochure, resources include a library, referral services and access to contraceptives in coordination with Emmons Health Center. The resources have been coordinated and arranged by the four students who comprise the CGE’s Advisory Board this semester.
Nina Pine (junior), Lisa Kraege (sophomore), Kelsey Longmuir (junior) and Evan Chang (first-year) have the responsibility of directing the CGE’s presence on campus, and act as a liason between students and CGE administration and as advocates for student questions and concerns.
“There are some issues Naddia [Palacios, Associate Director of Intercultural Affairs] and Michelle can’t know about as adults or as staff,” Longmuir said. “We’re their eyes and ears on campus. We’re crusaders for gender issues.” As the Center gets off the ground, this translates to maintaining office hours for students visiting the CGE, answering email and organizing the library of material from the Women’s Center.
“We’re in the process of making sure the materials fit our mission statement,” Chang said. “Some of what we got was extraneous. We sort of needed to purge.”
The Advisory Board is also in charge of preparing for campus events to raise awareness of the Center, its mission and its location.
In the last month the CGE has cosponsored Coming Out Week with QSA and a film showing with the ICC and ORSL. This inter-departmental sponsorship is a particular goal of the CGE’s, according to Saldana. The Center’s staff hopes to have “allies” on campus that will coordinate to establish the entire campus as a safe space for students to discuss issues of gender and sexuality.
The CGE’s earliest ally and co-habitant of Stewie Lower Lounge is Project SAFE (Sexual Assault Free Environment), which has also never had a permanent headquarters prior to this year. Project SAFE is defined in its brochure as a “prevention, education and support program dedicated to maintaining Occidental’s zero-tolerance policy towards rape.”
The SAFE office in Stewie is now equipped with an anonymous phone line for reporting sexual assault on campus, and remains staffed all day while the CGE is open.
Past SAFE events include self-defense workshops and Take Back the Night events for survivors of sexual violence, both of which Kraege says CGE will cosponsor this year. Other events next semester include Women’s Herstory Month, the Vagina Monologues, and possibly events during Black History Month, according to Saldana.
“We’re excited that people are excited about it,” Kraege said. “It’s important for us as students to be in charge, be the force behind where the Center is going.”
Pine stresses the importance of Occidental having a CGE in accordance with the school’s dedication to campus diversity. “Oxy claims to have a dedication toward social justice. This is a way for us to manifest that change,” she said. “Gender inequality is a huge international issue, and I hope we can start by helping students with whatever they need help with.” In the future, Saldana, Palacios and the Advisory Board will try to bring the CGE into the Los Angeles community.
“That’s probably a long way off,” Longmuir said. “We’d all love to do it, but we need to get established in this community first.”
The CGE is open weekdays 10-5 for drop-ins, and can be reached online at cge@oxy.edu for information and cosponsoring opportunities.
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