Women’s service center being reconsidered at UMaine, BDN reports
The Bangor Daily News reported that two years after the University of Maine’s Women’s Resource Center closed, a group of students is pushing to get it reinstated. For 23 years, the center served as a place where women could go to get information about gender equality or sexual and reproductive health, find support as victims of sexual assault or domestic violence or get referrals to other services, according to the article. This year, members of the Student Women’s Association are trying to revive the center, lobbying university officials and launching an online petition drive to reopen it, the article states. The university shifted the funding that kept the center running to the Rising Tide Center, which has a goal of improving opportunities for female faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math. UMaine officials said Rising Tide has seen success at UMaine, and they wanted to expand its role to encompass the work that was done at the Women’s Resource Center and also boost its collaborations with UMaine’s women’s gender and sexuality studies program. The campus is looking for a location that would bring the Rising Tide Center, women’s gender and sexuality studies and SWA together, the BDN reported. “The university agrees that a safe and supportive environment where women can meet, hold programs and find resources and support is essential in a 21st-century university,” reads a statement issued by the university. “UMaine is committed to serving the needs of women on campus. There is no deviation from this.”