BY SERIN SARSOUR
In the midst of a staffing and budget crisis, Brooklyn College’s Women’s Center rallied just outside the Bedford gates on Sept. 19. Earlier this year, CUNY Central froze the hiring that was supposed to fill two full-time lines at the Center during its final stages of the hiring process. The staff positions have still yet to be filled, so members of the Women’s Center are struggling to go on without the extra pairs of hands and funding.
It’s not only one position we’re fighting for now, but two. We have the program coordinator, and then we have the office manager,” explained Iqura Naheed, a BC alumna and an employee at the Women’s Center working as the program coordinator for the Muslim Women’s Leadership Development Project. She noted that the college has reduced these positions from full-time to part-time pay. Without a full staff, “our office quite literally cannot function,” Naheed said.
The Women’s Center provides students with resources like crisis intervention, referrals, a place to study, and a place to pray, as well as offering free tampons, sanitary napkins, contraceptives, and more. The Center also hosts events on campus, such as potlucks. But without a program coordinator, there will not be anyone to plan a full year of events.
Chants of “care not cuts” and “cut back, fight back” roared in the air from dozens of members and advocates of the Women’s Center. Multiple people spoke about the understaffing and underfunding that the Center is facing, including BC Political Science Professor Jeanne Theoharis and Alleyah Charlton, a member of the Center.
Charlton, a junior at BC and the social media manager for the Women’s Center, noted that the Center is a safe haven for many women of color on campus. “I know people say the words ‘safe space,’ but it truly is like that for me. They’re there for you academically. They’re there for you emotionally. And having a support system like that on campus being taken away, it’s scary, honestly,” Charlton said.
After the rally ended, a few of the Center’s members walked over to BC President Michelle Anderson’s office to showcase their petition that received over 800 signatures. However, President Anderson was not in her office and has yet to release a statement about where the Women’s Center currently stands.
“[…] there is no plan or even consideration being given to closing the Women’s Center,” said BC Vice President for Student Affairs Ronald Jackson. While the BC administration does not plan on closing the Women’s Center, protesters believe it is still at risk.
The Center was able to pull off about 40 events both last fall and last spring with only four people working in the office, but with the hiring freeze and budget cuts, the Center’s plans are not looking as promising.
“Now this year with one less full-time person and just three part-time people, it’s even harder. So I think we’ll barely have 10 [events],” she said. “So I don’t know if the doors will close. That would be like the very ultimate bad result. But it’s definitely already cut back on the services we can provide for students and how much time we can have the office open because we need people to staff the office.”
Stardasia Douglas, a senior at BC, was one of the numerous students who came out to support the Women’s Center. Douglas, a part of the Women’s and Gender Club who has decided to take on a minor in LGBTQ studies, wants the administration to do whatever they can to keep the Women’s Center up and running strong.
“I think they [BC administration] really need to listen to the opinions of their students. They need to advocate for us to have these types of services. I mean, what really is their job other than to listen to us,” said Douglas.