Barnard's New Women's Center and the Thinking Behind It, 1971, page 3

          That as an undergraduate college, Barnard lacks the facilities for improving
post-graduate academic opportunities for women, but it can work with other
divisions of the University toward this end;

That students want and need a livelier, more personal sense of the world
apart from the classroom. They should be brought into contact with women,
both professional and otherwise, outside of the college. Moreover, too often
members of the college community hold depressing illusions about women's
intellectual skills, such as that women are both less rational and less
adventurous than men; and that educating women is a less prestigious job
than educating men. Only a systematic, yet sensitive, comunity self-
scrutiny can end such myth-making..

These assumptions led the Task Force to the central conclusion that
Barnard should move toward the creation of a Women's Center as a focal
point for the study of women and their interests. With a growing research
library, a competent director and staff, its natural close connections to
the college and its undergraduate life, and eventually a self-sustaining
financial structure, such a center could generate programs of vital import-
ance to all women in their drive toward greater self-awareness and achieve-
ment.

A great many program possibilities were discussed, and the priorities
have not yet been fully determined, but some projects were recomended --
both academic and non-academic —- which seem promising.

The Women's Center could sponsor a permanent series of seminars on
Women and Society —— on immediate political issues of concern to women,’
such as the Equal Rights Amendment, which call for objective analysis;
on imediate personal issues of concern to women, such as the conflict
between career and marriage, which call for mutual analysis; and on long-
range academic questions about the study of women, which call for new
research. A national academic journal to publish such studies on women
might be a natural outgrowth. A

Alumnae too often are not exposed to new intellectual currents within
the college. Videotapes of actual classroom sessions might be made available
at cost through the Women's Center and local alumnae clubs.

Professor Sanders of our Geology Department has pointed out the acute
intellectual, psychological, and political disadvantages women have in
re-starting their careers in science. The Barnard science departments
might serve as administrative and logistical bases for bringing women
back into the competitive world of research.through a program of fellowships.
Besides devoting themselves to reading, study and discussions, participants
might operate part-time in teaching labs for undergraduates. ’

The Women's Center might set up a complaint bureau for alumnae who
discover prejudice in graduate and professional schools. Barnard could
cooperate with other women's colleges in clearing complaints from their
graduates as well. The colleges might then bring concerted pressure to
bear on the offending schools. C