In 1950, Katharine Sibley scooped the first shovelful of dirt from the lot on Comstock Avenue, on the empty ground that would become the Women’s Building.

Almost half a century earlier, eight women came together to form the Syracuse Alumnae Club, which first had the vision for a central place that could meet the recreational and social needs of women. They financed that dream with money from bake sales and dances. As the project grew, so did the scale of the fundraising, from vaudeville entertainment to silent moving picture shows. The original $50 donation was only a fraction of the cost of the $2,350,000 building.

Three years after Sibley dug up that first shovelful of dirt, the Women’s Building opened its doors and was dedicated on Nov. 15, 1953.

‘This building has exceeded all of our expectations,’ Sibley, SU’s first instructor for women’s physical education and athletics, said at the dedication, according to university archives. ‘It is truly the dream come true to the everlasting credit of thousands of Syracuse girls – the salt of the earth – who had, as we shall always have, great faith in our beloved university.’

The building’s purposes were many – gyms and bowling alleys for recreational and competitive sports to lounges for the Syracuse Alumnae Club and female commuter students to housing offices for the Women’s Athletic Association, Women’s Student Government and the Pan-Hellenic Council.

It was, in its essence, a place to serve every need a woman on the Syracuse University campus might have, a place for the women of SU to call their own.

‘The dedication of the Women’s Building today marks the end of a fifty-year dream and the beginning of a new era in women’s education at Syracuse University,’ read a brochure given out at the dedication.

It’s all in line with SU’s rich history of being open to the needs of women – SU was the first coed university in the state of New York when it opened in 1870. When the university took over the main fundraising for the Women’s Building in 1948, then-Chancellor William Tolley made it his top priority, said Marion Meyer, assistant dean emeritus in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

But today, only few remnants of the building’s original purpose remain. The Syracuse Alumnae Lounge is now a conference-style room called the Alumni Conference Lounge. Only a small plaque remains in the corner and reads, ‘Alumnae Lounge, given by Alumnae of Syracuse University.’ The pool is still called the Katharine Sibley Pool. A small plaque at the entrance facing Mount Olympus Drive honors the sisters of Gamma Phi Beta – a sorority founded at SU.

Gone are the offices dedicated to women’s organizations and spaces for women to gather. The row of offices on the first floor that now hold the development offices once held the office of the dean of women, a position that no longer exists at SU. Today, the building houses offices for the Annual Fund, the Campaign for Syracuse, News Services and the office of publications.

The gyms remain, as do the dance studios and, of course, the pool. But walking through the building’s winding halls, it’s hard to tell it was ever about women.

In 2007, the Women’s Concerns Committee of the University Senate decided to re-explore whether there was a need for a women’s center on campus. In 2008 and 2009, the committee surveyed faculty, staff and students in an attempt to get an idea of what people wanted from a women’s center, or if they even wanted one at all. The primary focus of the committee was to ‘investigate whether a women’s center could enhance the experience of members of the Syracuse University community,’ according to the committee’s 2007-08 annual report.

The idea built off a 2004 proposal to create an Office of Women’s Affairs/Issues put forth by the Executive Committee of the Women’s Studies Advisory Board. When nothing had been done since, the Women’s Concerns Committee decided to survey people to find out what they wanted, rather than to make a direct proposal.

‘It was us being proactive and picking up some loose threads that had been put in motion,’ said Martha Hanson, co-chair of the Women’s Concerns Committee.

Unfortunately, the survey saw low return rates, making most of the results inconclusive.

The survey went out to 3,189 faculty and staff, and 22 percent of those sampled returned it. The student response was lower – 15 percent of the 4,500 sampled returned the surveys. For survey results to be conclusive, a 70 to 80 percent response rate is typically required, according to the 2008-09 annual report by the committee.

The survey asked closed- and open-ended questions. One question highlighted a variety of services typical to women’s centers at other colleges, and it asked if people would like to see them at SU. Some of those services include crisis intervention, counseling, a hub for women’s organizations, a spokesperson for women on campus, a central meeting place where women can connect, and networking support.

Much of the feedback showed there is no definite answer to whether the campus needs a women’s center. Many responses questioned whether a more inclusive center, such as a family center or something open to both genders, would be better, Hanson said.

The committee has two meetings left this year – one on Tuesday and another in May. Planning for next year, the committee will discuss what initiatives it might pursue the following academic year. And a discussion on where exactly to go next in terms of a women’s center will be part of the conversation, Hanson said.

The committee felt strongly on the need for surveying because members did not want to set out with a strict vision on what a center would be. But getting the voices and perspectives of every woman on campus isn’t easy, Hanson said.

As societal and cultural norms have changed, so have women’s needs. The experiences women come to SU with today are different from those of 50 years ago, said David Potter, a member of the Women’s Concerns Committee and former associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

As an undergraduate at Haverford College in the 1950s, he said, three of the approximately 50 faculty members were women. Outside of the university, there were few women in government, and the idea of a female president was laughable, he said. Today, however, the stigma of women not being capable of holding positions of power is largely gone, he said.

Because of that, some people tend to think separate facilities for women are more digressive than progressive, he said.

‘This is a very different kind of world, and I think the temptation is for people to say, ‘Well, the battle’s over, what’s all the fuss about, that’s before, this is now,” he said.

The different experiences women come to campus with their freshman year reflect different needs, he said. Some women come to SU already having a sense of independence and might see little need for a center, while others come from a more conservative upbringing, or may be uncomfortable dealing with certain situations.

‘There is this question of what does she bring with her, then there is the question of what does she encounter when she gets here,’ he said.

Individual women’s experiences, ranging from what they are studying to their experiences with men to feeling like they have a safe place to turn to in terms of counseling and mental help, are all important factors. Perhaps a better way of analyzing what students need is by looking to academic findings or working with sociology professors to analyze the needs of women, Potter said.

The campus has a number of resources for all students regarding physical, mental and emotional needs. In total, there are 15 different offices that cater to such services, including the R.A.P.E. Center, the Counseling Center and services available at Hendricks Chapel. SU also created the Women’s and Gender Studies Department to focus on the study of women’s issues. Women’s sports are prevalent, and female students have more than a dozen sororities and social organizations they can join.

Meyers, the former assistant dean, said she was surprised and disappointed when she heard the building now houses the development office and other offices not related to women. It’s important for students to remember the history of the Women’s Building, as it marked a significant achievement for the Syracuse women who spent 50 years fundraising for it. The university can change the building’s uses, but it can never change its history, she said.

‘I was just impressed that they felt so strongly for the need at that time that they worked hard for that money to make it possible,’ Meyer said. ‘We’re going to forget it if we don’t keep it alive.’

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on April 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm