A reflection by student staff member, Marie, on her personal journey to becoming a feminist and beginning the process of raising her own daughters as feminists.

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Three years ago, my life changed drastically.  Three years ago this week, I became a mother. Besides the birth of my second daughter (almost 15 months later), this was my single most amazing accomplishment of my entire life.  Around the same time, almost exactly three years ago, I made the decision to take charge of my life. I decided to go back to school to finish my undergraduate degree. I was determined to be someone, to make something out of my life and returning to school was how I wanted to do that.  I was set on becoming the kind of mother that my children could look up to, the kind of person that they would want to emulate.

When I decided to return to school, I had a plan.  Not only did I have a plan, but I had a partner, and someone who was willing to share the financial responsibility of being a single income family for a period of time.  I was nervous, but I was ready. However, as soon as my plan started to come into fruition, everything started falling apart. I found myself suddenly: jobless, partner-less, a newly pregnant single mother taking 19 credit hours, and moving back into my parents’ home.  This was not the way that I had envisioned my return to college to be.

I tell you this, not for pity, but to show you how a little bit of hard work, “true grit,” and determination go a long way.  I came onto this UMBC campus eager to learn, and even more eager to graduate.  What I found was, that in between the learning and the pursuit of graduation, I found a lot of “greatness” in between.  (add image) I remember clear as day, where I was, (Dr. O’s Human Behavior class), and who I was talking to (Erin), when I first found out about the magical place on campus that would alter my college experience- The Women’s Center.  I was told about a program that I had never heard of, called the Returning Women Students Scholars and Affiliates Program.  Erin was currently a member of the program, and she persuaded me to look into the scholarship that is offered to “non-traditional students over the age of 25” and to check out the Women’s Center.  I didn’t think much of this conversation at the time, but looking back now, I am eternally grateful to Erin for this nudge in the right direction.  Not only did this amazing program help me out financially, it helped to secure a place on campus where I finally felt like I belonged.

Finding the Women’s Center on campus was somewhat comparable (to me) as finding a hidden treasure chest.  Because that’s kind of what it is really like. (When you go visit the Center yourself, you’ll know what I am talking about)  Are you interested in Critical Social Justice?!?  Well, there’s an entire week devoted to it.  Discussion-based programs? Yup, they’ve got those too.  Then there is Take Back the Night, which always serves to unite the campus of UMBC together to support the survivors of sexual violence and to protest sexual misconduct of any shape or form.  This semester, there are even Pop Culture Pop Up’s to address current issues that are prevalent “today.”

The idea of having an available Women’s Center here on campus got me thinking about the importance of Women’s Centers on college campuses and why they really matter.  I spent a little bit of time reading up on the start of campus-based women’s centers in general (the first campus-based center was founded at the University of Minnesota in 1960) and the undeniable need for a place to support and empower women in higher education.  I read about how in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, women began to re-enter into the field of academe. However, at this time, there were no departments or offices that were solely dedicated to women students, and many needs of this population were being unmet. The beginning women centers that were established to promote and support the re-entry of women back into higher education, while at the same time allowed for women to find “like minded others and build a radical, forward-looking community that worked for women’s equity (Devi, 2015).

Additionally, women’s centers were spaces that were open and available to all students, not just a fraction of the campus.  This allowed and encouraged participation in these spaces to encompass a broader range of people that collectively share the same ideals, beliefs, and values.  The founding centers focused primarily on raising and examining new questions about women’s lives, roles and expectations; helped to grow and develop feminist consciousness, aimed at combating isolation, and developed a sense of community.

What I found to be a common theme within women’s centers that I was able to research, was the shared common denominator of alternative resources and programming that are readily available and are not necessarily found anywhere else on campus.  Information on such topics such as: pamphlets and newsletters about rape crisis intervention; self-defense; coming-out information; lesbian support groups; women of color coalitions; contraceptive options for women; healthcare; feminist and lesbian literature; women’s music; alternative scholarship programming; feminist mythology; and other progressive and unconventional ideas were on display or easily accessible in each center.  These spaces also promote expect respectful interactions and conversations between all those who choose to participate in either discussions, or in the spaces in general.

Since the creation of the first women’s center in the 1960s, the evolution of these centers has continued to evolve around the issues  of women and gender and to address discrimination and dismantle sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic organizational structures.  Centers have been able to accomplish these issues by the continuing evolution of programming that includes tackling large scale issues, such as Title IX, salary equity, reproductive rights, violence against women, and issues of equity, diversity and intersectionality within the campus community as well as looking at society as a whole.

At the Women’s Center at UMBC, there is always something going on.  More importantly, there is always someone in the Women’s Center.  This small, but cozy, space houses some of the most intellectual conversations, stimulating interactions, learning experiences, and belly laughs that cannot be compared to. The space itself welcomes and promotes all aspects of campus life and “real life” that a women’s center was designed to encompass.  The staff is beyond friendly and approachable (I may be a bit biased), and the atmosphere is beyond welcoming. I highly recommend stopping by to say hi, to grab some coffee, or to meet a new friend. Why not, take a chance! That’s what I did, and I walked away with friendships, something that connected me to campus that I had never felt before, and experiences that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

When I look back at my time spent at UMBC, I am certainly going to remember the superior education that I received.  I truly believe that I will excel and flourish as a social worker because of the exceptional professors who guided me through the program.  I will also be able to stand up and fight to empower the women and mothers that I encounter with the knowledge that I have gained through the immeasurable teachings from the professors in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program.  But what I am going to remember and miss the most, is the place that I call home on campus, and the family that came along with it.

MCS Award for Academic Achievement

Nicolette Riggin

In addition to her BA in MCS, Nicolette is graduating this spring with a B.F.A in Visual Arts with a concentration in animation. During her time at UMBC, she completed internships with the Imaging Research Center, Career Communications Group, and Dreamscape Marketing. After graduation, she hopes to find a career where she can continue marrying her interests in art and media studies.

Jason JD Daniel

 “JD” came to UMBC in 2016 after retiring from 13 years of active duty in the United States Army.  This past January, he was accepted into UMBC’s Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership pilot program. Taking both programs concurrently, JD will graduate this spring with a Bachelor’s in Media and Communications Studies, a minor certificate in Theater, with aspirations of owning and operating a local non-profit for Veterans.

Chrysandra Medley

Cazzy Medley is a Senior at UMBC, double majoring in Media and Communications and English. During her time at UMBC, she has worked various jobs and internships including writing for What Weekly, tutoring at the Writing Center, assisting at Interdisciplinary Studies, and working as a social media intern for the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.  She has a passion for sustainability and human rights, and hopes to use her skills to fight for those causes after graduation.

MCS Award for Outstanding Service

Rayma Kochakkan

In addition to her MCS major, Rayma minored in Information Systems. She served as delegate to the MCS promotion and tenure committee in 2017. She was the social media and marketing intern for the non-profit Words, Beats & Life in the summer of 2017. She is currently public relations manager for UMBC’s hip-hop dance troupe, Major Definition. She really enjoys film and plans to work for a production company, hopefully increasing minority representation in mainstream cinema. 

Nicole Eggleston

Nicole Eggleston transferred to UMBC in the Fall of 2015. She graduated with a BA in Media and Communications with two minors in Music and Entrepreneurship & Innovation in December 2017. During her time at UMBC, she completed 3 internships. She also served as delegate to the MCS promotion and tenure committee in 2017. She is currently working the front desk of a local architect firm (KPN Architects) will be attending the University of Baltimore for grad school in Publications Design sometime in the near future.

Award for Creativity in Media Production

Evodia Hoff

In addition to her MCS major, Evie has minors in American Studies and Dance and an Honors College certificate. She has had internships with Consero Group LLC and The US Attorney’s Office, and is currently an intern for Delegate Mary Washington in the Maryland General Assembly. After graduation, she is looking for job opportunities that, like her current intern position, combine media and communications with civil service, social justice, or culture.

On April 12th 2017, UMBC hosted Take Back the Night. The night began with an introduction by the emcees and march leaders, Morgan, Ellie, and Autumn, and Women’s Center staff member, Samiksha.

Photo credit: Jaedon Huie

After the introduction was the survivor speak-out. The speak-out is the heart and soul of Take Back the Night. Survivors are encouraged to come up and share their story with the crowd before the march throughout campus. As a survivor, sharing your story at TBTN allows you to acknowledge your experience with others who believe and support you.

Photo credit: Jaedon Huie

We then moved on to the march portion of the night, where we got loud and chanted in support of victims of sexual violence. We Believe You, an activist group dedicated to ending sexual violence, led the march, the survivor circle of care, and a private discussion in the Women’s Center following the march.

The survival circle is a new addition to Take Back the Night. At the peak of the march, everyone formed a circle around True Grit. Survivors were invited to the middle of the circle, while supporters chanted the refrain, “We see you. We believe you. You matter.” After the survival circle, the march back to Main Street commenced.

 Photo credit: Jaedon Huie

After the march, community members got back together for some craftivism! This part of the night is intended to provide space for reflection, creative expression, and community-building between survivors and supporters alike. 

Photo credit: Jaedon Huie

Thank you so much to everyone for a powerful and moving evening. Thank you to every survivor for sharing their story, to every ally who supported the survivors, and a special thank you to all the volunteers and We Believe You members who made TBTN possible!

If you weren’t able to make it, here are some resources:

• Women’s Center at UMBC
• UMBC Counseling Center
• Title IX and UMBC’s Interim Policy on Prohibited Sexual Misconduct and Other Related Misconduct

Sexual Assault Awareness Month is all of April and we still have many events happening throughout the month. Check out the SAAM calendar for other upcoming events you can attend!

This post was originally created by  Sydney Phillips last fall for Critical Social Justice: Rise and was posted to the Critical Social Justice blog. The Monument Quilt display was sadly rained out for CSJ, but we’re excited to host it this April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We’re sharing the old post with some additional details for this Tuesday’s display.

We’ll see on Tuesday, April 17th from 12-6pm on Erickson Lawn!

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Last year, Critical Social Justice: Home was dedicated to recognizing UMBC as a home to many different people and communities. We celebrated UMBC as a home for learning, activism, and social change, as well as worked to invest ourselves in creating meaningful change here on campus. We then took our new in sights and knowledge with us to our other homes.

This year’s theme of RISE explores opportunities for building individual and collective resistance and resilience. Events throughout the week will challenge us to think about how we can do better, do more, and persist in doing it. How do we rise to meet the challenges of this particular cultural moment to work toward a vision of inclusive excellence—whether it’s in the classroom, online, or in our communities?

The Monument Quilt is a  crowd-sourced collection of stories from survivors of rape and abuse. The quilt is based in Baltimore but travels around the United States for displays at colleges and other events. The project will eventually conclude with a quilt display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. spelling out “Not Alone.”

Image from The Monument Quilt.

Each individual square is made of red fabric with hand-written testimonials created by survivors and allies. The goal of the quilt and the sharing of these stories is to create a public space for healing for survivors and to work towards changing how communities respond to rape.

Image from The Monument Quilt.

The Monument Quilt addresses rape as a social justice issue that affects everyone and views activism as a way of healing from trauma. This project is creating a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than shamed. It also deconstructs the narrow, mainstream narrative of sexual assault by letting survivors tell their own stories.

The Monument Quilt takes an intersectional lens to the issue of sexual violence and focuses on specific communities who are affected by sexual violence, including but not limited to women and people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and men. In an effort to represent the community with the highest rate of sexual violence in the U.S., The Monument Quilt has partnered with many Indigenous people and tribal communities. According to the a 2015 study by the National Institute of Justice, 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. Native women are significantly more likely to experience violence by a non-Native partner. Of those that have experienced violence, 66.5% of women were concerned for their safety.

In 2015, The Monument Quilt joined other activists to demand justice for a 13-year-old Choctaw boy who was sexually assaulted multiple times by his supervisor, Dale Townsend, at the Dollar General where the two worked. The boy’s parents brought a suit against Dollar General in Tribal Court, and the retailer argued that because the store was not within the jurisdiction of the tribe the retailer could not be legally sued by the tribe. Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians became a much larger issue because it was not only about ensuring justice for a survivor, but about proving equitable legal power for Native American communities. This case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court where a tie allowed a lower court’s opinion in favor of the Choctaw tribe to stand.

Image from The Monument Quilt.

You can earn more about The Monument Quilt and their activist efforts through the display and workshop on Tuesday, April 17th on Erickson Lawn from 12-6pm. The Women’s Center will be hosting a quilt making workshop from 5-6:30pm in the Women’s Center. Survivors and secondary survivors are invited to attend this workshop to make a quilt square that will be contributed to the Monument Quilt.

Additionally, we are excited that Tuesday’s event will include photography from Maite H. Mateo. Based in New York, Mateo documented the portraits of Latina survivors in Queens, New York who made quilt squares to be added the the Monument Quilt display. Mateo’s photography serves as visual representation that immigrant women often suffer higher rates of battering than U.S. citizens because they may come from cultures that accept domestic violence or because they have less access to legal and social services than U.S. citizens.

Further reading below:

• You can view some of the Monument Quilt squares here.
• Dollar General Attacks Tribal Jurisdiction by The Monument Quilt
• Rape Survivors’ Stories in Full FORCE; Focus on Abuse Against Native Women by Indian Country Today
• For more information about Maite H. Mateo and her photography series, visit the myUMBC event post which includes a document with a more detailed explanation.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Women’s Center is hosting its 6th consecutive Take Back the Night on Thursday, April 12th. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of questions about what Take Back the Night exactly is, why it looks the way it does, and how students can get involved. To help get those questions answered we started the “What You Need to Know” series focused on TBTN last year and are continuing on the tradition, so stay tuned for more posts over the next couple of weeks. This blog focuses on the evening’s campus march against sexual violence.

1,2,3,4 WE WON’T TAKE IT ANYMORE

 5,6,7,8 NO MORE VIOLENCE! NO MORE HATE!

As a survivor of sexual assault, the Take Back The Night march reminds me that I’m not alone.

Mariana De Matos Medeiros, ’16, and former student staff member at the Women’s Center, said “To me, having the opportunity to speak and march at TBTN last year reminded me that I am not alone and that I can stand in my power to speak about my experience. It took me 3 years to finally speak about my assault and one of the very first times was at TBTN last year. Seeing so many gathered to support allowed me to speak and speaking has allowed me to heal.”

It can be easy to blame yourself, isolate yourself, and feel like you’re the only person struggling with your healing; However, the march lets you connect with people who support you and believe you.

Sarah Lilly, a 2016 and 2017 Take Back The Night student leader says “Marching is us showing that solidarity is a verb, and it brings me great pride to feel so supported by my local UMBC community and to see the unconditional support for everyone else in our community.”

In an open letter in her school’s newspaper, survivor and student activist, Angie Epifano, recounted the aftermath of her sexual assault, namely her experience with institutional betrayal. She ended the letter with, “Silence has the rusty taste of shame.” Due to rape culture, victim blaming, a lack of support for survivors, and more, it is understandable that many survivors do not disclose their experience and sexual assault is rarely spoke of in public.

Much like the Baltimore-based Monument Quilt is creating and demanding public space for survivors to heal, Take Back the Night demands for space in which we will not be shamed into silence. Activists like Angie, the Monument Quilt creators, and YOU during the march are creating a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than publicly shamed. Come see the Monument Quilt at UMBC on Tuesday, April 17th.

Here’s some helpful information about the campus march against sexual violence to those attending Take Back the Night at UMBC: 

• The survivor speak-out is intended to center the voices and experience of survivors (of all identities) of sexual violence. The speak-out is for allies to listen and survivors to break their silence but the march is for EVERYONE to GET LOUD! 
• We encourage individuals and groups to make rally signs ahead of time. Signs are a great way to show your solidarity and support while also representing your student orgs, res hall communities, and frats/sororities.
• We’ll line everyone up in the march in waves. Survivors wanting to march up front with other survivors are invited to line up first along with other community members needed to take an accessible route march. Everyone else will then line up as survivors begin to march towards the south exit of The Commons.
• As we march, walk slowly and stay together. Try to avoid large gaps in the line.
• Due to construction, there will be a change in the march route this year. As we make out way through the new route we will stop midway through the march and hold our first Survivor Circle.
  • The Survivor Circle is a chance for survivors who may or may not have shared their story during the speak out to be recognized, come together, and be surrounded in support and healing by those attending the march. This is an opportunity for those who identify as survivors to come together without having to speak out or share their story if they do not wish to do so.
• The march will end back on Main Street where the space will be ready for the evening’s resource fair and craftivism. As you’re heading back into The Commons, come all the way into Main Street so everyone else behind you can get into the space as well.
• There will be one more chance to share your experience as a survivor post-march at a survivor discussion group led by the student organization We Believe You in the Women’s Center. (This event will be private and for survivors only).
• Counselors-On-Call will be available throughout the evening. Any one needing additional support or simply needs to take a break are invited to visit the self-care station that will be set up in the Commuter Lounge.

For more information about UMBC’s TBTN (check out Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter too by searching the hashtag #UMBCTBTN):

• Stop by the Women’s Center the week leading up to TBTN to make a rally sign for the march on April 9th, 10th, or 11th.
• A blog post about UMBC’s 2005 TBTN march written by alum, Dr. Grollman.
• Speak: Knowing a Survivor Without Knowing Their Story – a blog post on cultivating a survivor-responsive campus
• Register for and attend an upcoming Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence workshop. Click here for more details on the students workshop.
• The Women’s Center 2017 TBTN roundup
  

Stay tuned for the next installment of what you need to know about TBTN 2018! 

The Women's Center will be CLOSED on April 17th for The Monument Quilt. 

If you need to use the lactation room during the day, please email Jess Myers at womenscenter@umbc.edu.