Why is it that Dalhousie ignored their Women’s Center and doesn’t make an effort to tell students about it? What are they afraid of?
I can remember in the end of my first year that I was sick of residence and sick of eating bread because of the serious lack of vegetarian options, forced, overpriced meal plan, and lack of real kitchens within the res.
My second year wasn’t so great either, with issues with a new living arrangement, course problems and just general dissatisfaction with Dal, until I stumbled upon a friend who volunteered at the Dalhousie Women’s Center (DWC). I began to drop in every week to visit, and there I finally found a place that wasn’t depressing and cliquey like residence, and was away from all my other problems. It became the reason why I am almost finished my second year, and not back home working a boring retail job.
In my mind, a community is a place where people come together, hang out, enjoy themselves and don’t feel uncomfortable, in essence, the complete opposite of my residence experience.
I am truly surprised about is how little the DWC is promoted by the university itself. Not once in my almost 2 years has a professor or university organization mentioned it to me, and I am a major of the Gender and Women’s Studies program.
I have written this letter to make a point, that the DWC is a place where everyone can go to participate, be involved and meet new people. It is unfair how little attention the DWC gets, considering that it is a place for free childcare for students with children, sex education, LGBTQ community meetings, crisis counseling, cooking classes, Vegan potlucks and much much more.
How can a place that has so much to offer not be given more attention by the university community. Why does Dal not make an effort to tell students, women in particular, about the center, when it could help enrich their experience and give them a place to go when they need a break or need to talk. Are they afraid that women might get interested, no less involved in working for a good cause, supporting movements that will benefit themselves and other women around them? Heaven forbid girls find a safe place that allows them to be themselves and have real opinions that will never be silenced.
If Dal won’t acknowledge the wonderful things that the DWC does, then students will have to take a stand and do it themselves. The Dalhousie Women’s Center was a major part of the production of the Vagina Monologues, the V-Day Campaign, International Women’s Day march, and much more.
As a student who prior to coming to Dal had no knowledge or connection to a gender community or place like the DWC, I can honestly say that missing out on being a part of something like this would be a great shame.
Tell Dal to get off their asses and support the DWC by promoting what they do and by being proud that they are one of the few universities in Canada that actually has a house and a place for their students to go and be themselves. Dal could really do with a wake up call in understanding just what their student’s need and that students who pay the outrageous tuition prices deserve to know and have access to all the available resources. They shouldn’t have to stumble upon them randomly when their life has already hit rock bottom.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2008.
The promotion doesn’t seem the best as ive never heard about it. Although i doubt im their target demographic. just popping dal womens center in google gave me the webpage for it as the first resulthttp://womenscentre.dsu.dal.ca/links.htmleven with poor promotion if dal didnt support it, it would not exist.
Heeyyy that kinda sounds like Christianity as a whole! ; )”use guilt to pressure you into making a CHOICE that isn’t right for you. They’re all about masking their agenda.”Gotta love those Christians…God is forgiving and all loving, but if you don’t believe in him…YOU WILL BURN IN HELL.
one of my favorites”Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money.” George Carlin
Great, Quoting George Carlin, one of the most noted theologins of our day.
The DWC is a student society of the Dalhousie Student Union. It is run by students and a board which is elected by it’s members. It is not the business of the Dalhousie adminstration, staff or faculty to promote any of the student societies on campus. Promotion of the DWC should fall under the discrecion of the DWC board and no one else. However, the university and the DSU support the DWC in a couple of different ways. For example, the university gave the DWC their house (or at least are leasing it to them without rent). Likewise, the DSU allows the DWC one free night to use the McInnis room (just as any other society). If you feel the DWC is under-promoted, take some initiative and volunteer.
Try being a Christian at a school with the name of a saint that despite the universities claims of equality stamps out any of their relation to the strong religious affiliation which started out as WOMEN who not only founded their university but pushed for women’s rights. It’s real great that all of the other universities are allowed to have their respective religious groups but this one refuses to allow their diverse group to lean in anyway toward christianity despite the students involvement who are christian. I.e.: forcing them to change a fundraiser for birth right because the university wants no affiliation with anything pro life.
Whoa, pro life? You’re really going to go there?
Oh nooooo… just because a school has a Christian name from the 1800’s doesn’t mean that it is Christian any longer. The university has the right to choose what groups it wants to be affiliated with- if you don’t like it, you can always fundraise for “birth right” on Spring Garden rd. I just hope the university wasn’t encouraging your group to mask the true nature of its agenda. I know that last thing I’d want is for my cookie money to go to “birth right”!
Birthright sucks ass, that’s what they do – pretend to be all about options, but use guilt to pressure you into making a CHIOCE that isn’t right for you. They’re all about masking their agenda.
Dal sucks period. They have killed hundreds of dogs and cats there. They still do. Dal = murderers
They don’t still kill dogs and cats you dumbass.