The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Mackenzie Reiss

There are 49 physics professors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Out of these 49, four are women.

In her time working with female students in engineering and science, physics professor Marina Artuso has observed that women in these fields are underrepresented in the classroom.

Now, as a co-chair of the Committee on Women's Concerns, part of the Syracuse University Senate, she is working to change attitudes at SU by advocating the construction of a women's center to give women a place to go.

The committee will end a month-long student survey today in an attempt to gauge how much interest there is around campus for such a facility.

The survey asked students to rate how they felt about existing services on the campus, like the Department of Public Safety, Human Resources Service Center and the Psychological Services Center. It also asked faculty and staff to rate whether they viewed the overall campus climate as accepting or not. The survey then asked them to rate how importantly they viewed topics such as health and sexuality, mentoring, spirituality, salary and pay equity, and promotion and tenure.

The committee also intends to use the survey results to learn how the university community feels about the overall atmosphere on campus, said Martha Hanson, the other committee co-chair.

Hanson isn't sure what the center's functions would be, though she envisions the center as a "safe place to go to, emotionally and physically."

The committee researched 70 established centers across the United States in fall 2007. The committee contacted 14 of these 70 centers and asked the centers' directors questions such as who used the center, what effect it had on campus and what functions it served. Two of the centers that the committee contacted were Montana State University Women's Center and Emory University Center for Women.

Montana State University's women's center was founded in 1979 after female employees filed a lawsuit about pay inequities. Part of the settlement stipulated that the university establish a center to address women's concerns, said center Director Betsy Danforth. Today, the center sponsors special projects such as weekly seminars, a grant writing workshop each spring and a lecture series.

The center also holds seminars on men's issues. Though people perceive women at the center as "crazy feminists," Danforth said, the center won't turn men away if they need to use its resources.

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