Over 10 years ago, protests convinced
UCSD to open a women’s center.
The
Women’s Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary with
a special birthday gift, a brand new facility in the original
Student
Center. As
well as providing information and advice on everything from childcare
to divorce to birth control, the center currently offers programs
ranging from Legal Clinics, to Women In Science and Engineering
panels, to Love Your Body Day, an event to counter media stereotypes
of women.
When the new center opens this month, it will add a dedicated lactation
room for nursing mothers, a counseling room and a holistic center. In the early ’90s, UCSD remained the only UC without a university-funded
women’s center. Students staged protests and appealed to the
administration for several years before they were heard. But in 1995,
the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women
met to discuss the needs for a UCSD Women’s Center, and by
October 1996 the Women’s Center opened its doors.
As a student, special projects coordinator Jessica Chapin, ’00,
stumbled upon the Women’s Center as she explored campus. “I
had a very young daughter at the time and they had a great children’s
area and a changing station,” says Chapin. “From then
on, I
would practically live at the center between classes, studying, eating
or hanging out.”
Still, Chapin knows that many other
students have long been unaware of the services
the center provides and she hopes the new facilities will attract
a broader group
of people.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Women’s Center will hold a gala
on May 18. For more information, please contact mtumolo@ucsd.edu or visit
http://women.ucsd.edu. —
Karla DeVries, ’05
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