UNC-Chapel Hill seeks a full-time director of its Women’s Center. It’s been getting by with a part-time director, but that’s not good enough, of course. Why is it not good enough? This Chapel Hill Herald article explains:
The addition of a full-time director is expected to lend some legitimacy; many large universities already have full-time staffs directing similar women’s centers, said Provost Robert Shelton, whose office funds the endeavor.
“I think we’ve been behind the curve,” Shelton said. “In order to do this seriously, we need a full-time director.”
Ah, the Everybody-Does-It justification for new or expanded programs that is so compelling to administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill during Lean Budget Years (that is, every year).
But let’s take a look at why UNC needs to do that “seriously.” The introductory paragraphs of the article provide ample reason to question. That wasn’t the point of those paragraphs, however ? the point was to show the Women’s Center that You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.
After all, look at the struggle the Women’s Center had to overcome in its first year:
In the beginning, people didn’t even quite understand that UNC’s new women’s center was entirely separate from another, similarly named entity across town.
The problem was, there already was such a center, named, appropriately, “The Women’s Center.” It was and still is located on Henderson Street and has, since 1979, been a resource for women across the Triangle.
The Carolina Women’s Center, created in 1997, struggled at first to break from the shadows and establish its own identity.
Five years later it has done just that, growing enough in popularity that the university is now seeking its first full-time director — an indication of the center’s success.
