The Women’s Center hosted a question and answer session with Chancellor Mark Emmert on Monday to talk about the future of the center in accordance with the University’s Flagship Agenda and the Master Plan.
Emmert stressed the University’s role in bringing national recognition to the state.
“We’re the portal to national and international competitive education,” Emmert said. “We need to aspire to be the best in the country.”
That aspiration comes at a price, and the cost may mean tearing some buildings down and moving organizations around. The Women’s Center, along with other houses that share the land, may be relocated if the University builds a parking garage.
Emmert said the University never has had great space to provide every organization with adequate room. The Women’s Center knows this all too well, with its Raphael Semmes Drive location being its third relocation in five years.
The center moved to its present location only after getting a petition signed by 2,500 students, and those involved with the center hope to stay put for as long as possible.
Stacy Sauce, a mass communication senior who spends time at the center, said the biggest problem is they have no definite answers of where the center will end up.
“Do I think the Women’s Center should ever be moved for a parking garage? No,” Sauce said. “It just makes sense to put a garage over an existing parking lot.”
April Tauzin, a women’s and gender studies senior, said the Master Plan is not set in stone, and she thinks Emmert is taking student opinions into consideration.
One concern of moving the center, according to Amber Vlasnik, Women’s Center manager, is how to tell those involved about it.
Vlasnik said in the past, it has been hard to let people know about a relocation, thus making it harder for the center to grow in participation and support.
“If we move, it will be easier to contact people now because we are starting to have the means to let people know about it through e-mails,” Vlasnik said.
She said the center is growing, holding classes and organization meetings for at least four different groups. Vlasnik also said the center serves as a command center for many activist groups on campus.
Emmert said there are no current plans for the center to move, and the idea is in the discussion phase. He said the University needs to address space problems to provide places like the Women’s Center with adequate or better conditions.
“This is well into the future, years from now,” Emmert said. “It’s not like there are bulldozers waiting outside.”