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KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2011 / NEWS
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CAMPUS
Gender equality activists make history by studying it
BY SARA SNEATH editor@kansan.com
On a Friday evening in February 1972, 30 women locked themselves in the University East Asian Studies building. They called themselves the February Sisters. For 13 hours, the women occupied the building, demanding attention be brought to the inequality of women on campus.
Many students now benefit from these demands, yet few know the history behind them. Women's History Month is almost over, but for University gender equality activists, the history making has just begun.
Robert Hughes, a graduate student in the sociology department, describes inequality as "untapped potential."
"You never know who would've developed the next cure for cancer or solved a major engineering problem, but because they were never given the opportunity we'll never
THE DEMANDS FOR THE FEBRUARY SISTERS WERE AS FOLLOWS:
A campus daycare center
know," Hughes said.
Better recruitment of female students to the University
However, not all those who do consider themselves activists lock themselves in buildings. Rather, they may argue that education is the first step.
Hughes does not consider himself an activist.
Equal employment practices
Meredith Pavicic, a junior from Leawood, is the president of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a University student organization aimed at discussing and com-
"My approach is generally to demonstrate the empirical inequalities that are there; what society loses as a result of those inequalities; and then leave the question of what to do about it to a student's own research," he said.
The creation of a women's studies department The establishment of a women's health program The appointment of a woman vice chancellor of student affairs
-kuhistory.com
LIBERTY HALL accessibility info (783) 749-1972
bers. In addition, at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday the Feminist Book Club meets in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building.
BIUTIFUL (R)
4:20 ONLY
CEDAR RAPIDS (R)
7:15 9:15
students $6.00 !
bating gender discrimination. She says the main focus of the CSW this semester has been the changes going on in the Kansas Legislature.
Edited by Danielle Packer
Union. From 7:30 to 9 p.m. this Thursday, the CSW will hold a panel discussion about reproductive rights in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union. Included in the panel will be two February Sisters mem-
"I think most people — men and women — they have these rights, and if they don't appreciate them then they can be taken away. And they are being taken away in the Kansas Legislature right now," Pavicic said.
open forum that drew him into the CSW. After hearing about the organization through an English course and a friend who had attended a meeting, Maldonado decided to check out the group for himself.
In addition to its current engagements, Pavicic said the CSW continues to hold annual events such as "The Vagina Monologues" with the intent to keep an open forum about topics that some are too afraid to talk or think about.
For Ruben Maldonado, a sophore from Junction City, it was this
["I] went to one meeting and another and kept on going," Maldonado said. "Talking to the other people in the meeting, they had all taken women's studies classes. I have a busy schedule, and I can't take those courses. To me, it became like a free class."
For those who want more education or to become actively involved in a movement, many opportunities are available. The CSW meets at 8 p.m. every Monday in the Regionalist room of the Kansas
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OKAY
, I've been renting from this guy for a few months, and it's not what I thought it would be. My garbage disposal breaks, he shows up 3 weeks later. The "pool" they promised me looked nothing like the picture. Since when does a hole in the ground filled with trash and living things constitute a safe swimming area? Don't even get me started on the walls, it's like a bad horror movie in here.
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