Our History
The Women's Center serves the Duke undergraduate, graduate and professional student communities. The Center was established in January of 1989 and began offering programming in the fall of 1989 after a two and a half year process begun by a group of undergraduate women who called themselves "The Coalition for a Women's Center at Duke." The Coalition researched and published a report outlining the need for a Center whose sole purpose was to support and promote student women and gender issues on campus. A task force was appointed by the Vice President for Student Affairs and its charge was to further research the need for and explore the feasibility of a Women's Center at Duke. After being founded, the Women's Center expanded its services to include the Office of Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) in the Spring of 1991.
The Women's Center is a department within the Division of Student Affairs and part of the Campus Life management team within the Division. Campus Life includes: the International House; the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Life; the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture; the Community Service Center, the Center for Multicultural Affairs; Office of Student Activities and Facilities; and the Freeman Center for Jewish Life. The Women's Center's Director reports to the Assistant Vice-President for Student Affairs.
The Women's Center's budget comes from the Division of Student Affairs. The SASS budget comes from Student Health fees. In addition to our own educational programming, a significant portion of the Center budget goes toward co-sponsorships with student groups and other departments with limited resources. Additionally, the computers, scanner, some long distance phoning - and sometimes photocopying - are made available to student groups addressing women's and gender concerns.
The Women's Center is currently staffed by 5 professional staff members: a Director, a Program Coordinator, an Office Manager, the Coordinator of Sexual Assault Support Services, and an Assistant Coordinator of Sexual Assault Support Services. The majority of the Center's staff are work-study undergraduate and graduate students, all of whom have specific programming responsibilities and job descriptions. Our student staff positions carry a large responsibility for programming and advocacy on campus. We employ 9 to 10 students and also have many volunteers who help the Women's Center and SASS meet our mission.
Sexual Assault Support Services is comprised of a number of components. First, direct services and advocacy: a 24-hour information line is available 12 months of the year and appointments can be made during business hours for counseling. Survivor support groups are offered as needed for child sexual abuse survivors, rape and sexual assault survivors and usually meet weekly during the academic year. Additionally, the SASS Coordinator works to assist students needing academic relief, medical care, counseling or other interventions. Second, SASS is responsible for the anti-rape education and outreach to the campus. This includes first-year student orientation, programs in the residence halls, and working with the student groups involved in peer education. SASS also provides professional inservice training to campus departments. Finally, SASS is responsible for monitoring the university's compliance with the Federal Regulations that are part of the Campus Security Act - this includes overseeing the rape response protocol, participating in the university's Safety Task Force, assisting with academic and residential relief for survivors as needed, and orchestrating the education response. The SASS office is staffed by two, full-time professionals who serves as an integral part of the Women's Center staff but whose responsibilities are dedicated to the operations of the SASS office.
The Center is centrally located on Duke's West Campus and has about 2000 square feet consisting of four staff offices for the Office Manager, the Director, the SASS Coordinator, and an office shared by the Program Coordinator and SASS Assistant Coordinator. We also have a kitchen/work area with microwave, full-size refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, cabinets, counter space, and a table for serving food; the work area in the kitchen consists of a copier/fax machine and a cabinet with work surface. The front desk and student work area has a phone, sofa, cozy chair, work table, three desks with computers, student staff mailboxes, a b/w laser printer, and a color inkjet printer. We also have two lounge/meeting spaces: the upper lounge area houses our library and a small (non-confidential) meeting area. The lower lounge is more formal (with meeting tables and chairs) and has doors that can be closed for confidential meetings.
Our office equipment includes computers (one for each staff person, and several used by student staff) copier/fax machine, a large-screened monitor (for publishing our magazine), a scanner and three printers (two b/w laser and one color inkjet). Our meeting space has the usual flip-chart, TV, VCR, and DVD player. Our kitchen area also has a coffee/tea pot (we keep coffee, tea, mugs, etc. on hand). Our meeting spaces are HEAVILY used throughout the year - something we welcome (most of the time).
Our best strategies have been to build alliances EVERYWHERE possible - from our own Division to faculty and staff to related community organizations such as local rape crisis and domestic violence agencies, state legislative organizations and social change organizations. Other Duke departments and especially the support of women and men students is what has gotten us to the successful place we are. In an academic institution with a strong emphasis on research, it has been important for the Center to be in constant dialogue with faculty on how we can support the students' experience outside the classroom while supporting themes being taught within the classroom. The Center also enjoys a close working relationship with Duke's Women's Studies Program. Ascribing to a broadly defined, fluctuating and inclusive feminist ideology has enabled the Center to speak to and advocate for varied students and their experiences. One of the Center's strengths is the way we have brought together women and men from a cross-section of affinity groups including fraternities, sororities, ROTC, cultural groups, lesbian/gay/bisexual groups and any number of other groups.