{"id":949,"date":"1986-05-15T16:07:20","date_gmt":"1986-05-15T23:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=949"},"modified":"2016-09-19T16:07:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T23:07:57","slug":"the-battle-over-the-womens-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=949","title":{"rendered":"The Battle Over the Women’s Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cTHE BATTLE OVER THE WOMEN\u2019S CENTER\u201d<\/p>\n

Nassau Weekly Article (5\/15\/86)<\/p>\n

By Randy Schoenberg<\/p>\n

After months of meetings, a protest, a sit-in, and then more meetings, the Women\u2019s Center members have been unable to get Dean of Students Eugene Lowe to accept one of the Center\u2019s basic characteristics: consensus decision-making.<\/p>\n

Lila Karp, outgoing Director of the Women\u2019s Center believes that the University has muddled the issues of the autonomy of the director and the decision-making process to hide the administration\u2019s objections to the way she has run the Center. \u201cPerhaps what is underneath all of this is that because I as an administrator have from time to time disagreed with other administrators on certain issues\u2014such as all women meetings and the pro-life task force\u2014what they are really saying is they don\u2019t want disagreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowe counters that the issue is not how political the Center is, but how it is run. \u201cTe notion of the Center being less critical or less feminist,\u201d he says, \u201cis not an issue. The issue is administrative. I don\u2019t believe that by definition there is one way to run a Center.\u201d Although he does not find fault in the way Karp has run the Center, Lowe does not want to guarantee that it be run similarly in the future.<\/p>\n

Karp believes that consensus decision-making is the way to insure that minority opinions not be left out. \u201cTo be honest,\u201d she says, \u201cI do not understand what all this talk about the problems with consensus decision-making is about. Consensus decision-making is another way of coming to decisions; it differs from majority rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowe says, \u201cI wanted to have it understood that the director had the ability to act apart from a consensus.\u201d The women of the Center however, are not convinced that Lowes objection is just an issue of the director choosing which way she would like to run the Center. Arlene Keizer, a sit-in participant, believes that the University wants more control of the activities of the Center. \u201cWhat the University wants to guarantee,\u201d she says, \u201cis that even if something did not pass the Women\u2019s Center consensus they could make the Women\u2019s Center do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whedbee Mullen, who participated in the sit-in and is a member of the newly-formed Women\u2019s Center Study Committee, agrees, \u201cThey are definitely threatened by consensus decision-making. They want it to be run by a director, to initiate and decide what goes on at the Center.\u201d Another one of the six who protested in Lowe\u2019s office, L.A. Kauffman sees it even more critically, \u201cThe University administration\u2019s view of democracy is hostile to democratic institutions and administrative hierarch on the Women\u2019s Center. They want a dictatorial director. I don\u2019t know how any programs can come out of the Women\u2019s Center without student input.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Karp has been very successful with the consensus decision-making process. \u201cOver the last eight years I have never had to use authority over any consensus,\u201d she says. An person many attend the Center\u2019s weekly business meetings and participate in the decision-making process. Katrina Browne, a freshman, says, \u201cI went to my first meeting two months ago and I was immediately welcomed as part of the decision-making process.\u201d The meetings attract over twenty women. Karp thinks that her method of directing the Center has been beneficial to the students, and hopes that her successor will continue with it. \u201cThe students and any director chosen should feel that they have the right to make decisions that go on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consensus decision-making is outlined in the Center\u2019s \u2018Statement of Purpose.\u2019 \u201cWe discovered after two meetings that the \u2018statement of purpose\u2019 was under serious evaluation,\u201d says Sharon Holland, a junior who was one of the six women who participated in the sit-in.<\/p>\n

The \u2018statement of purpose,\u2019 which has existed since Karp became the director of the Women\u2019s Center eight years ago, explicitly states, \u201cThe Women\u2019s Center is a feminist organization whose primary purpose is the protection and advancement of women\u2019s rights and the promotion of greater participation by women in all areas of society.\u201d It goes on to describe the method of decision-making which the Center has adopted. \u201cDecisions are made by consensus: a process of discussion leading to agreement rather than a majority vote that overrules minority opinion.\u201d The students originally asked Lowe to guarantee that the \u2018statement of purpose\u2019 would not be questioned by the study. In fact, they refused to discuss any other specifics until the statement was accepted.<\/p>\n

Lowe refused to give them any immediate guarantees on the \u2018statement of purpose.\u2019 Kauffman describes his response, \u201cthe best we could get out of Dean Lowe was some feeble statement that [the Center] clearly represent (sic) the views of recent members.\u201d Lowe says that he did not disagree with the feminist, affirmative action nature of the Center, but objected to the insistence on consensus decision-making. \u201cThe members of the Women\u2019s Center have thought about themselves as more of a student organization than a university organization,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is difference in resources, since their budget is taken from the general operating funds of the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the negotiations at a standstill, the students planned the protest and sit-in which resulted in a meeting the next day with Lowe and President William Bowen. According to Mullen, \u201cBowen put pressure on Lowe to do something.\u201d Lowe met with the Women\u2019s Center representatives on Monday, May 5 in the evening to hammer out an agreement. The resulting document was to be signed on Tuesday morning, but after thinking more about it Lowe proposed additional changes which were accepted, and the agreement was signed that afternoon. The agreement says that the study report \u201cwill presuppose a feminist, affirmative action focus for the Center.\u201d Of the role of the director in the decision-making process, it says, \u201cThe director must be aware that her dual responsibility is to represent the consensus of students to the Administration and to represent Administrative policy to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disputes have arisen in the past that the feminist nature of the Center has unfairly excluded a part of the community. The study conducted by the ten members of the Women\u2019s Center Study Committee will investigate the \u2018image problem\u2019 that has plagued the Center as a feminist institution. The active participants in the Women\u2019s Center do not represent the mainstream, admits Karp. \u201cThey represent the needs<\/em> of the mainstream of Princeton,\u201d she says, \u201cbut not all women at Princeton are part of a forward-moving society when it comes to feminism.\u201d Mullen says, \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to be a feminist at Princeton.\u201d Kauffman feels that feminists are not the only ones with an image problem. \u201cPrinceton University has an image problem,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is male dominated; the old boy network still exists; the ration of tenured female faculty is abysmal; the ration of undergraduates is unacceptable; the sexual harassment policy is weak at best. When you\u2019re talking about a place like Princeton, you need a feminist Women\u2019s Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karp believes that while the Women\u2019s Center has made many contributions already\u2014the Women\u2019s studies Program and better on-campus lighting, to name a few\u2014its presence is still necessary. \u201cI think that there is a myth amongst many persons on campus that because women have been here since 1969 they are perfectly integrated into the life of this campus and therefore there are no more issues. You cannot over fifteen years change attitudes of persons associated with a University that was for so long all-male, any more than you can rid sexism over the world at large. Sexism has its manifestations which need watching and need change. The Women\u2019s Center is the place to play the role of educator and watch over a community that isn\u2019t quite as sensitive to issues concerning women\u2019s needs as it might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study committee will complete its report by October 31 of this year. Then a search committee will be formed to find a new permanent director for the Center. Whitcomb says that she hopes to have someone hired by April 1, 1987. The ten members of the study committee will also be asked to be on the search committee. Although the students had asked that the members of the search committee be announced this spring, Lowe reserves the right to add more members to the search committee next year. \u201cWe wanted the search committee formed now,\u201d says Mullen, \u201cso that seniors would have a say as to who would be on the search committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karp wonders what the search committee will look like next year. \u201cMy concern about the search,\u201d she says, \u201cis that students do not yet know what persons will be placed onto the search committee in addition to those on the study committee. I hope those persons who will be placed on the search committee in the future will be members of the community who are sympathetic to the concepts of the Women\u2019s Center, sympathetic to the valuable work at the Women\u2019s Center over the years, and knowledgeable about the Women\u2019s Center and feminism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowe says that he will use the search committee only in an advisory role. \u201cI am the one appointing the administrator. I will ask the committee to give me an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of certain people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the Women\u2019s Center activists have been very critical of the way Lowe has handled their requests. The Daily Princetonian <\/em>reported on May 5, \u201cHe said their aggressive approach had partly contributed to this reticence,\u201d and quoted Lowe as saying, \u201cTheir presupposition has too often been one that assumes confrontation as the fundamental mode of dialogue.\u201d Karp says, \u201cI think it was a mistake for Dean Lowe to call the Women\u2019s Center participants aggressive in their efforts at negotiation. In doing so, I think he fell into one of the most common traps of sexism. I could be wrong, but I don\u2019t recall him calling divestiture students aggressive.\u201d Lowe responds, \u201cSome of the letters were not cast in a form to have discussions. They were categorical and didn\u2019t allow for any give and take.\u201d Kauffman says, \u201cThe tone of the meetings was anything but confrontational. He can\u2019t be dealt with.\u201d Holland says, \u201cHe refuses to react until you push against a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six students who sat-in at Lowe\u2019s office are awaiting a decision on their punishment, which is not expected to be too severe. Karp says that the protest was intelligent. \u201cIn light of many of the changes that have occurred since the sit-in\u2014a larger study group, and acceptance of the Women\u2019s Center statement of purpose\u2014and in light of the fact that students were holding discussions since March, I would say the sit-in was a very intelligent move.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study committee has ten members, including three Women\u2019s Center members, Assistant Dean of Students Muriel Whitcomb, and Assistant Dean of Students Rochelle Robinson, next year\u2019s interim director of the Women\u2019s Center.<\/p>\n

Originally, Lowe had instructed Whitcomb to conduct the study herself, but after the Women\u2019s Center members became more vocal in their complaints about student involvement, Whitcomb and Lowe suggested that the study be done by a group. Karp says, \u201cI am extremely pleased that one person is not any more going to be responsible for studying the Women\u2019s Center\u2019s past and its future. I think a decent compromise has occurred now that the study group has been enlarged to include persons chosen by the Women\u2019s Center members and Dean Lowe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today at 4:00 in Whig Hall the Women\u2019s Center Study Committee will hold an open forum to discuss the needs of Princeton women with the community at large.<\/p>\n

[\u201cI think it was a mistake for Dean Lowe to call the Women\u2019s Center participants aggressive. He fell into one of the most common traps of sexism.\u201d\u2014Lila Karp]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTHE BATTLE OVER THE WOMEN\u2019S CENTER\u201d Nassau Weekly Article (5\/15\/86) By Randy Schoenberg After months of meetings, a protest, a sit-in, and then more meetings, the Women\u2019s Center members have been unable to get Dean of Students Eugene Lowe to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}