Event Blog: Take over

I attended the take over for the women’s studies department this semester. We took over Diablitos and my best friend Kirsti and I decided to lumber in and eat all of the food possible. It was a daunting task but we made a solid dent. An equally daunting task is the idea of finding space for the women’s studies department at SLU. There does not seem to be a huge amount of knowledge or integration of this department into life at SLU. I have felt at times that I was a little lost in a sea of people that have no idea or respect for the subject matter. For example one of the activities that my sorority ZTA did this semester was to increase the focus on academics. So for a few of our chapter meetings, we were to sit in our major groups. Nursing, PT, and OT dominate most of the sororities at SLU so I was not surprised that I was going to be in a much smaller group, a few things did surprise me though. The first was the chair emailing me twice to double check that I really was a women’s studies and poli sci major because she honestly had no idea what that was. As such she had no idea where to place me. I understood and so I gave her a blurb about what both subjects sort of entailed. Her response was a choice of two groups where to sit, “Do you think that you have more in common with the theater or early education majors?” I told her that perhaps a group that focuses on communication, English, or even pre-law would be the best fit. She was still very in the dark. I was assigned with the theater majors (we had a blast, but they too were very confused). This group was awesome and they did really want to hear about women’s studies, but like the chair, they were totally unaware it existed until I sat with them. To me this really proved that there is a disconnect with our department and life at SLU. Even the women who I regularly feel that I have the most in common with and call my sisters, are totally clueless about what I have devoted my academic life to.

The idea of taking over a space physically is just as important as taking root mentally. There needs to be awareness that we are a growing vital department that deserves more than a hidden corner in McGannon and little advertisement from the university.

The event itself rocked too. The food was amazing as well as the conversation. Kirsti and I got into discussions with many of the staff about the issues of birth control when you live in a small town and go to church with your doctor (result, difficult). We also got to discuss the concept of changing your name upon getting married result (I’m refusing to undergo the loss of identity she is willing to hyphenate Gesigh-Palovick I can hear any and all announcers crying at the thought of having to read that out loud. Finally we got into this great discussion about our high school classmates getting married and pregnant, though mostly jut married. And how it was terrifying and awful and totally setting them up for a difficult if not forever limited academic life.