ORONO, Maine — Two years after the University of Maine’s Women’s Resource Center quietly closed its doors, a group of students is pushing to get it reinstated.
The Women’s Resource Center shut down prior to the start of the 2015 school year after 23 years on campus. The center served as a place where women could go to get information about gender equality or sexual and reproductive health, find support as victims of sexual assault or domestic violence or get referrals to other services.
“When we came back to school in the fall of 2015, we learned that the WRC had been defunded, which sparked a disenfranchisement among students who were familiar with the center and knew its value,” said Sam Saucier, co-chair of the campus’ Student Women’s Association.
This year, members of the SWA, which used to hold meetings at WRC, are trying to revive the center, lobbying university officials and launching an online petition drive to reopen it.
The university shifted the funding that kept the center running to the Rising Tide Center. That center, established in 2011 under a $3.4 million National Science Foundation grant, has a goal of improving opportunities for female faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math.
Campus officials say Rising Tide has seen success at UMaine, and they wanted to expand its role to encompass the work that was done at the Women’s Resource Center and also boost its collaborations with UMaine’s women’s gender and sexuality studies program.
The funding shift came a year after the WRC’s longtime director of the center retired, and was part of the “planning for sustaining the mission of the center,” according to UMaine spokeswoman Margaret Nagle.
Saucier and other students have been meeting with university officials this semester and decided on a new meeting space in Memorial Union for the Student Women’s Association, according to Nagle. The campus is looking for another location that would bring the Rising Tide Center, women’s gender and sexuality studies and SWA under one roof.
The university also is in the midst of a search for a new director of the Rising Tide Center, who would be responsible for its offerings, advocacy and outreach of the organization.
“With new space and a new center director, growing collaboration among the three groups is anticipated,” Nagle said. “The university agrees that a safe and supportive environment where women can meet, hold programs and find resources and support is essential in a 21st-century university.”
The Rising Tide Center may not provide all of the same services as the Women’s Resource Center — for example, health information or support for victims of violence. Those services will continue to be available in places such as the university’s health and counseling center and the campus’ Division of Student Life.
“UMaine is committed to serving the needs of women on campus,” Nagle added. “There is no deviation from this.”
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.