Recently at Western Carolina, the Student Affairs Office decided to open a Women’s Center to better address women’s issues faced on campus and in the community.
After a national search, they chose Rebecca Caldwell to be the director. Caldwell is proud to be chosen and is excited about the possibilities of the Women’s Center.
The Women’s Center has only been open for a month and is still collecting ideas on how it can best serve WCU and the surrounding community. Caldwell has planned many sessions over the next two weeks open to students, faculty, and the community in order to make sure the Women’s Center is set up with the interest of the Cullowhee and Sylva area and not the ideas of the director.
“The purpose of the Women’s Center is to be a resource on campus for our women on campus and in the community,” said Caldwell. “The Women’s Center will house a resource library, focused on women’s issues but not limited to women. Men are welcome to come see the facility and what is has to offer.”
The Women’s Center is also meant to be a place of advocacy for women on campus. When a woman has a conflict on campus or in the community and does not know where to go, she can go to the center and receive the direction she needs.
Caldwell also stressed that the Women’s Center is a place where a person can go to feel comfortable and invited, but also that it will not take the place of existing programs on campus.
The Women’s Center will be a place to express one’s creative energies and exchange ideas with others. She hopes it will be a place for conversation on the issues and a platform for those issues to be solved.
The Women’s Center can also be used as a source of information for academic projects. The center is currently located on the second floor of the University Center in room 213 beside the SGA office, but it will move to the University Center II when that building is completed.
The hours of the Women’s Center are not fixed, but a woman can visit whenever the center is open or can make an appointment to visit.
Interested in helping create a vision for the Women’s Center? … call 3982
