CREATING CHANGE Student demonstrations in the ' 90s called attention to the lack of a formal Women ' s Center on campus and gave way to a thriving resource today .
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Women ’ s Center
PICTURE A FUNKY LITTLE ROOM in the old Student Center : a run-down yet comfy couch to crash on and a binder at the front desk providing guidance on issues ranging from sexual harassment to mental health .
The Women ’ s Center at UC San Diego has come a long way in the decades from its roots as a student collective in 1972 . It was the first place Patti Orozco-Cronin ’ 89 visited as a new freshman hoping to be a peer counselor . She soon took leadership of the group , inviting activists like Angela Davis , MA ’ 69 , and Sonya Johnson to speak , and making even that modest space welcoming to the campus community .
“ Women would come in who had never been to a Women ’ s Resource Center , unsure of what they were seeking ,” explains Orozco-Cronin . “ Next thing you know they would want to integrate into the group . It gave us fortitude to achieve all that we did .”
Despite the collective ’ s popularity , for many years UC San Diego remained the only campus in the UC system without an official , university-funded Women ’ s Center . In 1990 , students — along with the Chancellor ’ s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women — began jointly advocating for a formal space . Molly
McKay Williams ’ 92 remembers creating a large “ invisible ” Women ’ s Center tent out of a plastic tarp on Sun God lawn . Students camped out to bring attention and support for the critical resource .
“ We will not be denied ,” McKay Williams wrote in The New Indicator , then a campus newspaper . “ Women demand our needs to be met . The ten-year battle must end now ! The budget will always be tight ; it comes down to priorities .”
The proposal for a Women ’ s Center was approved in 1995 and the space opened a year later . Today it is a thriving hub for education and community building , with an expansive resource library , a community kitchen and meeting space , a private lactation room and baby changing stations , as well as a singleoccupancy gender-neutral restroom with a shower .
“ My favorite part of the Women ’ s Center is the feeling of calmness and community when you walk in — I never feel like an outsider ,” says Dominique Strickland ’ 18 , a former Center intern . “ It is a place for knowledge , friendship , community or just studying . So many powerful people find space here , and those interactions are invaluable .”
Learn more at women . ucsd . edu
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