Cathryn Salis

The former Women’s Resource Center has officially been integrated with the Gender and Sexuality Diversity Programs to become the Center for Gender + Sexualities, a change that has been four years in the making. This is one of Hamline’s many steps to creating a more diverse and welcoming environment for students of all sexes, gender identities and sexualities.
“Bringing [both programs] into a sort of singular unit and entity with the hope that we’ll continue to do all of the programming that we were doing in those other areas, but just under the house of a singular center,” Sexuality and Gender Diversity Programs Director and Deputy Title IX Coordinator t. aaron hans said.
Items that fall under both the sexual health and safety and menstrual health supplies are still available, free of charge, for Hamline students. Students are able to find supplies outside of Anderson 320 and in several bins across campus—most of which are in all of Hamline’s Residence Halls.
This integration has been in the works since the conversation began in 2019. However, as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and faculty changes within the program, this project had been put on the back burner until last year.
“Changing the name was just something that felt far too difficult just capacity wise, until last year,” hans said. “My graduate assistant was able to do some focus groups and lead some conversations and do a little more research and thinking with me about it and help me formulate and come up with a plan to make this change happen and roll it out.”
After forty years of the Women’s Resource Center and almost twenty years of Hamline’s Gender and Sexuality Diversity Programs, this integration seemed to be the best step into creating a safe space for women, femmes, queer, and trans-inclusive* students while still respecting the history behind each individual program.
“Our goal is to really build upon the work, the historical work of these two programs and to continue that right in an intersectional way.” hans said.
The name was chosen after the input from several student, staff, and faculty focus groups along with consultation from experts in the Gender and Sexuality fields from across the country. Each sector of the name was carefully chosen in order to help reflect the true values of the program.
By using the term “plus” instead of “and”, the center is able to highlight the importance of intersectionality when it comes to this sort of work. Rather than the “gender” and “sexuality” parts of the center being perceived as separate entities, the plus shows how intertwined both are.
“Many of the resources and supplies we provide aren’t just for women, right? Menstrual supplies, condoms, and safer sex supplies and all of those things are being used by all kinds of people. So being able to be more inclusive and make people more welcome to be able to come in and get the resources that we provide,” hans said.
Although the change is for the best, as the change has given the program the room to grow as time goes on, it does not come without its difficulties.
“As someone who came from the WRC side of this merger, I would love for the people who came to us to know that our office and events remain a safe space for them,” sophomore Events Programer Student Worker Elisa Lopez said. “I think it’s tricky merging offices because it can feel like more of a loss than a gain but we as an office and staff are still just as committed to supporting the women and femme-aligned people on campus as we were last year and years prior.”
They encourage newer students to come and visit the Center and discover the hidden and impactful gems within the program. There is a resource for anyone and everyone, no matter what one identifies as.
The Center for Gender + Sexualities is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m on Fridays. More detailed information about the program and its mission can be found on their website.