Barnard Reports, Women's Center, draft, 1971, page 1

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Barnard Reports
Women's Center

Now that the academic year is almost over, I would like to report to theii

Barnard community about the Women's Center's first year. The Center, an office

in Barnard Hall, officially opened in September. Its financial support came

largely from the income of a bequest from Helen Rogers Reid, so long one of

Barnard's most generous friends. The staff now consists of two work-study

students (Pollock '74 and Ann Pearson '73); a full-time administrative”
co-ordinator (Mary wexford Scotti '66); and a part-time acting director (me). K
The Center has acted upon several principles, which have gradually
evolved. l) It has set up programs on behalf of women and initiated a dialogue 1)
about women in contemporary life; 2) while it has been acutely aware that women
in contemporary life often lack dignity, equality, and autonomy, it has tried )
to be non-sectarian in its programs; 3) it has tried to have a multiplicity

of programs and points-of-view rather than a single project that would take
all available time, energy, and resources; 4) it has tried to blend and balance
administration, staff, alumnae; rather than giving any one element "control,"it has
tried to make everyone up feel free to participate as he or she wishes
or as he or she feels the women's question to be of central interest; 5) it
has remembered that Barnard is a college and that the Center should do things
a college can best do; 6) yet, it has tried to be of use to women outside
the college.

That Barnard is a women's college is crucial.
a sympathetic environment. During the past months we have devised three
sorts of programs. 1) Those we could put into operation immediately; 2) those
that we began planning; and 3) those we thought desirable, but in need of
much more money. The readers of Barnard Reports_may know of some of the

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