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BY ARIEL MARTINO

In print | Published March 5, 2009

With an eye to achieving their goal of making the Women’s Resource Center a venue for facilitating discussions between diverse groups across the campus, the women of the WRC board have been implementing numerous changes to the WRC, including a new style of Open Hours called House Sitting and decisions to offer the WRC as a space within which to co-host events.

Primarily, the WRC is taking steps to make the center foremost a physical space for hosting discussions and events rather than a group of activists that generates its own discussions. “We want the WRC to be a space more than an agenda,” Kristin Caspar ’09, board member, said.

To that end, the key characteristic of the new version of Open Hours is Housesitting, a new program that allows women’s groups as well as interested individuals to approach the WRC to host two-hours shifts during Open Hours. During these shifts, the hosts can show movies, hold discussions and workshops, and organize study breaks or other activities. Open Hours “bring diverse Housesitters from around campus to host weekly events … that encourage people to come to the space,” Kopansky said.

“A big part of making the WRC accessible to everyone and a safe space is to be really considerate of different perspectives, and a big goal of the WRC Board is about listening and reaching out: to really make it the Women’s Resource Center, not the WRC Board’s Resource Center, as the two have often been meshed in the past,” Dina Kopansky ’11, board member, said.

This past Monday, the house sitter, Ivana Ng ’12 hosted a clothing swap party for students to stop by with unwanted clothing, jewelry and accessories to trade. “So far, I haven’t had many people come to the Women’s Resource Center during my shift, but it all really depends on the kinds of events held and it is up to the house-sitters to advertise their events,” said Ng, who is relatively new to the WRC. On Sunday, a House Sitter drew 12 students to a study break to make s’mores.

Though the center has always had some type of open hours, this year the open hours are intended to foster a sense of community and to provide activities for the community to enjoy. Kopansky was quick to encourage students to use the center’s amenities like the full kitchen and available snacks. “I think that because this kind of Open Hours is new, people are still hearing about it, but we hope that as more people learn about it, it can really become an alternative to McCabe or other main study or hangout spots on campus at night,” Kopansky said.

Along these lines, the WRC board will be co-sponsoring a talk with the Sexual Health Counselors on Birth Control, working with Feminist Majority to plan a “What is Feminism” lecture for Feminine MystWEEK, a week centered around feminist issues, and co-sponsoring events with the Sager planning committee. “I’ve seen more changes to the WRC this year … come into effect towards these goals,” Caspar said.

The events for Open Hours are advertised through Reserve Students Digest. Housesitters themselves are responsible for advertising events held during their Open Hours, raising the potential concern that Open Hours will cater to a limited group of students. However, those who have been Housesitters trust that as more people find out about the WRC’s new initiatives, a wider range of students will begin to use the facility and broaden the community. “I think the more people find out about the WRC and the types of events we’ll be holding through RSD, Facebook, word of mouth, the more people will begin coming to the WRC and learning about and using its resources. It’s a great place to study, and there’s an awesome library of feminist literature in the attic,” Ng said.

Part of the board member’s impetus for implementing reforms over the past year and a half has been its goal of shedding a negative reputation. “When I was a freshman, the WRC had the reputation of being a white heteronormative group,” Caspar said. Further, the WRC has been seen as a community of little action, Kopansky said. The Center has also previously been seen as an exclusive place that is only used by Women’s Resource Center Board members and members of the immediate WRC community, rather than being open to the student body as a whole.

But the WRC at Swarthmore continues its efforts to shed that image.

“While the WRC has had a really problematic history, the new direction where we are heading is really focused on listening to women of all backgrounds, not just race, but class, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, however you identify or where you come from, to form new goals and a new identity for the WRC that is inclusive and productive,” Kopansky said.

Open Hours at the Women’s Resource Center are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 p.m. until 12 a.m., and on Sundays from 3 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.

Additional reporting by Mary Prager

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