Women’s Center Celebrates 40 Years at WSU

OGDEN, Utah – The Weber State University Women’s Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, honoring a legacy of education, empowerment and advocacy for women and students.

According to Paige Davies, Women’s Center director, the center strives to create a safe and inclusive campus environment by addressing systemic oppression and working toward a vision of gender equity.

“Since the Women's Center's founding in 1980, we have focused on empowering women and their families through numerous services and resources,” Davies said. “The early Women's Center focused on women returning to college after divorce, marriage, motherhood, etc. Today, the center still provides support to women and mothers, as well as all other students at Weber State, through scholarships, events and resources.”

Through the dedication and leadership of previous staff and students, the center has expanded its scope of services over the years and taken on major initiatives. The center now offers a variety of services that focus on social justice education, empowerment, leadership and engagement. It also provides a variety of scholarships to help students in need complete their degrees.

Since 2015, the center has also coordinated Safe@Weber, an initiative promoting the safety and well-being of all individuals. The program provides violence prevention education for the campus community on topics of consent, healthy relationships and bystander intervention. Additionally, the center offers confidential advocacy services to survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence.

The Women’s Center hosts events and programs to help students examine real-world issues and their own identity, as well as teaching them how to make positive changes in their community. In addition, the center helps students participate in activism, advocacy and civic engagement.

The Women’s Center will hold a celebration March 10 at 5 p.m. in the Hurst Center Dumke Legacy Hall. Guests will enjoy dinner and hear from past students, staff and faculty, including keynote speaker Adrienne Andrews, WSU Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity.

 “Celebrating this strong history of supporting women's empowerment, education and leadership is important to us because we are proud of our roots,” Davies said. “We want to celebrate not only what we have achieved and what our current projects are, but also look forward to an even more equitable, inclusive and safe community at Weber State.”

For more information about the Women’s Center, visit weber.edu/womenscenter

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

Author:

Shaylee Stevens, Office of Marketing & Communications
801-626-7948 •  shayleestevens@weber.edu

Contact:

Paige Davies, Women's Center director
801-626-6372 • paigedavies1@weber.edu