YOUNGSTOWN YSU Women's Center needs more attention, director says

The Women's Center is a student activities program, not an academic program.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The departing director of the women's studies program at Youngstown State University said she is pleased that the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences has come forward to support the academic program.
However, she remains concerned about the future of the separate YSU Women's Center that provides a nonacademic resource for female students.
"I feel as if there's progress being made with regard to women's studies," said Dr. L.J. Tessier, who this spring ends a nonrenewable term as director of the academic program. "These days, any progress is to be thankful for. They are taking women's studies seriously."
But, Tessier said, she fears that the Women's Center -- supporting students with financial, psychological, health and other types of support and resources -- may close.
"We have a real need for a women's center on this campus," she said. "If anybody thinks discrimination is over, I say, 'guess again.' I see victims of it every day."
The Women's Center is operated through student affairs. Dr. Cynthia Anderson, YSU's vice president of student affairs, was not available to comment Wednesday. Tessier, who goes by Tess, said Anderson has supported the center in the past.
'Getting on track'
While the center has no director, Tessier has stepped in, unpaid, to help out, calling herself the "default" director, because her office shares space with the center. She said it has opened, then closed for lack of support, three times in the past 15 years, earning it the moniker "the Youngstown problem" among women's issues advocates at other colleges.
"I find that embarrassing and sad," Tessier said. "It doesn't say good things about what our priorities are as a university."
As for the academic unit, Tessier remains positive, saying it is gaining support and that decisions being made by the dean of art and sciences "are taking us in the right direction."
Though the program won't be as strong as it was in the days before its budget was eliminated by a former dean, "it should be better than it is right now," she said.
The goal is to get the program on track "so it can grow," said Dr. Jane Kestner, associate dean. She said she has taken on the tasks of finding a new director and appointing a steering committee for the program. The director will be selected from faculty and will be required to teach one less course per term than other faculty members to fulfill the director duties; currently, Tessier teaches one less course per academic year.
New plan
YSU has no major in women's studies, but the university offers a minor, or students can major in the topic through an individualized curriculum plan. The minor requires two specific women's studies courses that are facilitated through the academic program. Other requirements, such a women-related course in history, English or management, are offered through other colleges and departments.
Under the new plan, the program will have a budget line, with an amount yet to be determined, Kestner said. Tessier said it will be a minuscule budget, "not enough to pay the phone bill," but that she is pleased the program will at least have a budget line that officials can build upon in the future.
Dr. Robert A. Bolla, dean of arts and sciences, said an earlier Vindicator article was in error in reporting that the current program did not have a budget. The cost of the time Tessier is released from teaching duties -- the one course per year -- is considered the women's studies budget, he explained. For the new budget, he said, money will come from "wherever we can find it."
Because of state funding cuts that affected the university's budget, Bolla was forced to cut all arts and sciences programs by as much as 50 percent last year.
Kestner said she also plans to seek external funding sources.
The separate Women's Center has a budget of about $4,000, not including its one permanent employee. Other employees are students with work-study arrangements, Tessier said.
viviano@vindy.com