A women's place

Should Dartmouth have a women's resource center? The question dominated campus politics during winter term. The Trustees learned this the hard way when a group of about 25 women held a sit-in near the room where the Board ate breakfast with two members of the Women's Issues League (WIL). The larger group was. not satisfied with the breakfast meeting and demanded a "speak-out."

The sit-in lasted two hours before the trustees complied. That evening, eight trustees listened as 200 students and faculty members voiced their concerns. "I don't think I've ever been in a place that's as sexist as Dartmouth College," faculty member Carla Freccero told the Board, "and I've been in some of the more infamous Ivies."

Early in the winter, the WIL drew up a proposal that calls for a space that would centralize women's health, counseling and referral services and contain a library of women's literature, exhibits of women's art, meeting spaces, and a safe haven. .

The administration responded by appointing a Women's Support Task Force, which was to issue a report this month.

Should Dartmouth eventually establish a women's center, the College would follow the lead of seven other Ivy League schools. But not everyone thinks Dartmouth should follow that path. Predictably, The DartmouthReview, the conservative, off-campus student weekly, was against the idea. So was The Dartmouth. In an editorial titled "Not the Answer," the .student daily asserted that the creation of a women's center would not address the "real needs of women" at Dartmouth and would have a polarizing effect on the community at large.

As evidenced by some of the counterproposals, they might be right. Riding on the coattails of the WIL plan were calls for a men's resource center, a human resource center and a kosher kitchen.