Spring 2012 - Clarion University

If
If I arrive at the WGS Center and find it in complete disarray, my
mood lifts. Half empty water bottles, stale cookies, chairs arranged like
gossiping neighbors, paints, placards and posters strewn across surfaces,
and the pungent aroma of stale coffee in the air blow up my hopes like a
balloon. Students at work and feminism in action renew my spirit. Students
Together Against Rape (STAR), Women United, FMLA, Allies, the Clarion VDay
Project, Vagina Warriors and VMen – all have made their home here.
Special events, too, can leave their mark. I cough at the thought of
the thick hairspray fog that filled the air as we readied to launch our 1993
ALF float, part of a year-long celebration of women’s enfranchisement.
Then, I breathe in the chaotic energy left behind by girls and boys, excused
from school early to participate in “Take a Daughter/Son to Work Day.”
I picture WS faculty presenting research, hear their music and poetry
performed at brownbag lunches and teatime. I see a handful of students
camped out at our roundtables to study and nestled into the wing chairs to
chat. (The Pikna sisters are our regulars at the moment.) There were also
the passionate speeches given from the steps outside, in honor of survivors
and lost women at “Flame to Fire” and “Take Back the Night.”
Year after year, my students have fed my soul and belly in this space.
Once, Moniqua Williams served Thanksgiving dinner! Over dessert, she shared
her secret recipe for outstanding mac and cheese. Women United provided
chips, dip and soda for meetings, FMLA hosted ice cream socials – and then
there was Kathy Shirey’s veggie pizza, a Tri-Iota tradition. Chicken tortilla
soup, tacos, red pepper sweet potato soup —we could write a cookbook!
Volunteers and interns built the foundation upon which student
assistants established the WGS Center’s reputation for quality outreach
initiatives. They were, or rather overnight became, expert event planners.
I usually recruited my assistants from one of my classes, thus confirming
they were smart, dependable, possessed well-honed organizational skills and
were connected on campus. In some cases, I intuited an unfocused desire
to make a difference in the lives of others. At gut level, I trusted them to
hit the ground running, armed with a thimble full of training. Together, with
Kathy Shirey, our super-shero secretary, I believed we’d get the work done,
no matter the hour on the clock.
Carly’s story to follow may or may not speak to the other student
assistants who graced my life. I know they all drew on their creative talents
to design systems to organize me (all failed). I know they all saw the sides of
me that glow in the dark. For example, Carly did convince Mariah, her Vagina
Monologues, co-director, to cast me as “The Angry Vagina”!
“The sky is the limit in that place. When I worked with Dr. Deb, it was a true collaboration … I had a voice. Because of the chats,
programs and just being in the WS Center, I am definitely a feminist and proud of it..”
~ Tangynika Matthews, ‘99
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