Spring 2012 - Clarion University

PRioR
Prior to WGS I worked as
an advisor for Upward Bound and
EOP/Act 101. These experiences
opened me up to the raw realities
of social injustices. I witnessed,
firsthand, how abject poverty,
racial prejudice, and blatant sexism
can narrow children’s choices,
press their potential flat. I decided
to be an advocate for my students,
to speak up to those who leveled biased judgments against them.
My appointment to WGS signified arrival at a place where “passion,” an unbecoming
academic quality, would be embraced. Once, a dean applauded my “enthusiastic” performance
in an annual review and I took offense. “I have feelings about changing the world that go to
the bone,” I cried. “This is not a mere job to me—it is my passion. This work is the culmination
of everything I have worked for.” She agreed to change her descriptor. When I started the
position, she had suggested I turn my knee socks in. I tried more “professional” garb, but
quickly changed back. I can’t think of a single time my socks inhibited my achievement. I’ve
tried to teach my students this lesson: to be yourself is the deepest well, the source of your
creative powers.
Smitten with my good fortune, I might have been a little hard to take when I first
began directing WS. To quote me, “I am pleased to be leading WS at my undergraduate alma
mater. CU is now perfect.” There was also one answer on an early faculty assessment that
lingers: “To improve, stop acting like WS is the end all and be all of programs at CU.” Add in
the dinner at Dick’s Last Resort restaurant, an experience consciously designed to torment
the customer by all brand of insult and humiliation (I did not get the joke). I admonished
our young waiter: “You know what you need“ I sputtered, “You need to take a WS course!!”
My husband still teases me about my thinking that taking a WS course is the answer to
everything wrong in the world. I still humor him in his lack of faith.
I was “suitable” for the WS directing position because the PASSHE Women’s
Consortium, with the leadership of Mary Keetz, had shown small numbers of women
throughout the system that together, we formed a critical mass. Her research on the
status of women in the system showed appalling results in terms of representation in
administration and on the faculty, inequitable salaries and rank based on sex, lack of racial
diversity, sexual harassment polices, women’s centers and WS programs.
It was at the organization’s first conference that I came to know
Kathy Graham, as a mentor, a wit, and someone who absolutely had
to read before bed. On our return trip home, we and Cass Neely
made a promise to ourselves. Unlike Stanton and Mott, who did
the same after the London Abolitionist Convention denied their
voices, our voices had been lifted up. We felt were destined
to be instruments of change at Clarion University.
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