Thea Bowman Center at Siena a gathering spot for women

Siena College's new Sister Thea Bowman Center for Women was once a dorm room for four football players. Now, it's a cozy space with books on women's issues, comfortable couches and crafts made by students.

Cocoa and cookies are "available at all times," added center director Dr. Shannon O'Neill, who also teaches in the college's Foundations program, a general liberal arts course for freshmen.

Because the center just opened in August, its staff -- Dr. O'Neill and a dozen work-study students -- are using enticements like couches and cocoa to persuade students to stop by. But sophomore Dania Jiminez, a business major who is on the center's staff, is confident that someday, "we'll have a red velvet rope in front of the door," like those used outside popular nightclubs.

Issues in focus

The Thea Bowman Center was created after a group of faculty, staff and students asked for a centralized place on campus where gender issues could be addressed. Those issues range from adjusting to college life to admitting the existence of an eating disorder, said Dr. O'Neill.

Many college students, she noted, also struggle with self-esteem and self-respect issues; even offensive language can be a problem on college campuses.

To create a center appropriate for a Catholic campus, Siena worked with the Women's Resource Center at Boston College. Dr. O'Neill said that some faculty at secular colleges believe a women's center must address the issue of abortion, but she believes many other problems are just as or even more pertinent for college students.

Awareness

The director cited the center's mission as "raising awareness about gender issues and promoting the spiritual and professional growth of men and women."

To date, the center has offered programs such as kickboxing, making crafts, learning about the opposite sex and preventing sexual assault.

The latter program was scheduled after a female student from Russell Sage College in Troy was stepped outside a bar and was raped by three men; along with the program, the Bowman Center is also handing out emergency whistles.

Variety of approaches

A recent screening of the documentary "Trading Women," about women in the sex trade overseas, also drew a large audience. But not all of the programs are nearly as serious.

"One of the first programs I did was, 'Why Women Need Chocolate,'" Dr. O'Neill explained, laughing. "[Someone] said, 'What does that have to do with feminism?' I don't really see the majority of women [students] being interested in anything with 'feminism' in the title."

Instead, attendees talked about types of chocolate, magnesium in chocolate, why women sometimes crave it while experiencing PMS and why women may feel guilty for eating it.

Dania Jiminez said she liked the idea. "A lot of the programs they do on campus are not about issues we have," she said. She'd rather hear discussions about dieting, exercise, why women are excluded from some sports and how the genders can get along.

Student leadership

Many of the center's programs are student-generated. Dr. O'Neill noted that the kickboxing lessons were taught by a sophomore woman who is a second-degree black belt in Hawaiian martial arts.

Another student led a workshop on journaling and meditation. Older students also addressed freshmen during an informal discussion on topics like managing their schedules while doing a year of school abroad.

Dr. O'Neill was quick to note that the Bowman Center is not a counseling service nor a battered women's center. It's simply a place for women on campus to relax and talk about concerns -- without, for example, getting a problem roommate in trouble.

More to accomplish

Soon, the director hopes to put female students in touch with women in the community, starting a mentoring program where they can work on service projects together.

She also wants to make the center more inviting to male students and "let them know we're not male-bashing."

Students are even welcome to hang out or do homework at the center -- "whatever they want to do," said Dr. O'Neill. Her goal is to "make life better for the women on campus. This is a listening year."

(During December, women who come to the Bowman Center are planning to make Christmas cards for children with cancer, assemble shoeboxes of toiletries for a local homeless shelter, deliver "candy-grams" on campus to raise funds for Heifer International, and sponsor a "Fair Trade Week" where goods from Third World countries will be sold and a speaker -- incidentally, a Siena alumnus -- will talk about women's cooperatives in those countries. The center was named for Sister Thea Bowman, who died in 1990. She was the first African-American Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration. She became an internationally known speaker and retreat leader on equality and intercultural awareness. Learn more about her and the center at www.siena.edu/studentaffairs/womens_center.asp.)

(12/2/04)