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Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2002 5 - t ' ..... ' feat. "... . ,. . .. ,. y. ... " . ' f 4 V' 1!fin,iiTmiTVWiliiiih rrffiitYtt Women's Resource Center One of Few 'wtfii fa MifiMMiiliarilTiil hliiVifl1IMipi. IHiUlriti nnt urnililii ii't Chronicle Editor in Chief As a wave of feminism washed over the country in the 1970s, centers devoted to women's issues sprang up at universities nationwide. Out of the 275 centers started by the 1970s activists, only seven remain. One of those seven is the U's Women's Resource Center. The resource center, established in 1971, marks its 30th anniversary this academic year. The Women's Resource Center is a dynamic institution that changes with the times and the issues facing women. What started as an institution to help older women return to college has converted to a center geared toward getting junior high girls to see the value of higher education. However, many of the issues that founding Director Shauna Adix faced in the '70s and '80s are the same issues Director Kathryn Brooks faced during the '90s and even today. During this year of celebration, the center's employees have had an opportunity to think back over the past three Iuihii.lii j.umii.uMiiijjLi jiih mu.muuim Mi.umjui mimii .imum tinummiui riftlln'ir'-i- rTrrTitoirtrnawtiiig fit successes still a long ways off. Center. They left their homes, obtained degrees and began careers. The center spent much of its resources facilitating this new wave of students that broke model. the traditional 18- - to During this time, the center started its famed speaker series that continues today. The center continues to address a variety of issues such as women's health, leadership development, sexual harassment and finding a job. The center helped establish the Studies Program in 1975, which just this year became the Gender Studies Program. In those early years, Brooks recalls the electricity surrounding centers Women's across the nation. Morale was high and expectations lofty. "We really believed by year 2000 that we would have had at least a vice president who would be a woman," Brooks said. Current Problems Regardless of the lack of a woman in the Oval Office, women have not obtained an adequate number of leadership positions at the U, according to im juipjutojibi ijujjiumwmi ..nim .mu..i,iui..iij immh nm .m t : ill wx The first female student-electe- d president of the Associated Students of the University of Utah was Paige Paulsen Erickson in 1979. Since that time, ASUU has had two other female presidents, the most recent was Tama-r- a Taylor, during the 1992-9- 3 academic U " - year. Currently, none of the nine public colleges and universities in the state have female presidents. In the history of the U, only one woman, Jerilyn Mclntyre, held the position of president, and she was the interim president while the Board of Regents conducted a search to fill the position permanently. Educating women to assume leadership roles is one of the four key areas Brooks wants the center to focus on in the years to come. PX The three other issues include health and body image, violence against women and continuing educa- Founding Director Shauna Adix started years helped women return to college. the center in 1971 and tion. "This is the one I want to give up, but I am a dreamer. We can't step back infrequent counseling, Voisard will refer them to someone in the Salt Lake Valley. Voisard estimates that she refers nearly 500 women a year to out- Counselors conduct seminars on women's body image, trying to combat media stereotypes and the variety of eating disorders thet women still face. Brooks also tries to highlight women's health issues that include everything from breast cancer to heart attacks. The issue that she would most like to rid herself of is violence against women. i.ii.iimiimmn.iima.iiLii ., n.n... i.ijinw.iii..i.jij.iiini i.Miju. pimmw r i ,,!'"""" The ' ... 4 and say it is over," she said. Counselor Brenda Voisard estimates that 200 students each year get counseling from the Women's Resource Center, typically on sexual assault and harassment. "We are a short-terplace," she said. If a student needs more than just m from a forgotten program to Sweet 16 volleyball team,. with the likes of McKelle Stilson, has grown entrant. in those early side counselors. "What concerns me is how many are not contacting us. Either they don't know we exist or they are scared to talk about it," Voisard said. see WRC, page 12 The Evolution of Title IX ERIC WALDEN Chronicle Sports Editor r ' ' V if ' nm the staff at the Women's Resource Brooks said. MATT CANHAM 'Ill I decades at the in roads made and the Then and Now "When this center started, there were literally hundreds of women who wanted to come back to school," Left From 1970s illin'T v t Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is now 30 years old. Three decades have passed since Title 20 of U.S. Code Section 1681(a) was written to say: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Though Title IX is most commonly associated with intercollegiate athletics, its sphere of influence also includes educational and academic facets. Institutions of higher education that once did not think twice about arbitrarily denying women entrance into certain programs were suddenly federally obligated to include them; otherwise, they ran the risk of seeing their federal monies cut or withdrawn altogether. In this academic realm, tangible results are there. According to the University of Iowa's Gender Equity in Sports Project (of 1997), by '94, women received 38 percent of all medical degrees (up from 9 percent in '72), 43 percent of law degrees (7 percent in '72), and 44 percent of doctoral degrees (25 percent in '77). Meaning that while there are still significant strides to be made (considering that at the U's own College of Engineering, the ratio of women to men is about 1:6), there has been substantive progress. Docs the same hold true for sports, though? Has Title IX equally fulfilled the obligations inherent in its athletics arm? Has it maintained its promise to rid the world of collegiate sports of sexually based discrimination? It depends largely on context. U women's basketball coach Elaine Elliott doesn't know about the nation as a whole, but at Utah, she feels the right attitude regarding women's athletics has fostered the right actions to make compliance with Title IX a reality. "A commitment has always been made to in the most possible ways be very cognizant of equality between men and women, especially as it relates to athletics," Elliott said. In regard to intercollegiate sports, there are three primary areas to monitor a school's compliance with Title IX: Athletic financial assistance, stipulates that the total amounts of athletics aid must be substantially proportionate to the which ratio of male and female athletes. Accommodation of athletic see TITLE IX, page 9 |