The Undergraduate Student Government is preparing to submit its proposal for a women’s resource center on the Tempe campus the week after spring break.
The women’s center is part of USG’s plan for how to spend the proposed $75-per-semester-per-student facilities fee, which will be considered by the Arizona Board of Regents later this week.
USG president and political science junior Brendan O’Kelly said ASU is the only school in the Pac-10 that doesn’t have a resource center for women.
“The problem is, we have counseling and consultation in one place and we have health services in another,” O’Kelly said. “If we had those things in the same place, in addition to a women’s resource center, a woman wouldn’t need to be go to separate places on campus for one problem.”
USG Vice President Chris Fennessey, a political science junior, said USG doesn’t necessarily want to implement a wide range of new services, but instead put all the existing services in a more centralized location.
“It’s sort of like if you took all the weights in the [Student Recreation Center] and put them in different places,” he said. “How would you know where to go, how do you promote that they are available if they’re scattered around?”
Resources available at the center would include domestic violence counseling, self-defense training classes and education on topics like body image and eating disorders, Fennessey said.
“There is just so much to women’s health and wellness that it would be a disservice to not have this kind of resource on our campus,” he said.
While the center would be geared toward women, Fennessey said it would not be gender-biased. Men who need services provided by the women’s center, such as rape counseling, would also be able to receive these services. Fennessey said USG is also hoping to create a virtual women’s resource center, with educational information online.
ASU Womyn’s Coalition co-director and women and gender studies sophomore Sarah Norman said the Womyn’s Coalition has been advocating for a women’s resource center since the fall semester.
Norman said she is in favor of the center, but wants a separate space from the other services.
Norman said, however, that she is still waiting for tangible steps to be made in the project.
“My question at this point is ‘what are we going to see this year?’” she said. “I’m wondering what are we going to see happen before these executives leave office.”
Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu
