Remembering the Gender Awareness Center, or GAC
The Gender Awareness Center (GAC) began in 1989 as the first space at Southwestern University dedicated to gender-related resources, activism, and discussion.
The Gender Awareness Center (GAC) was the first physical space for gender related issues and resources at Southwestern University. It moved around a lot in its years at SU, and was opened, closed, and re-opened several times before it eventually disappeared a few years ago. In each iteration, it was a physical student counter-space that housed library of gender-related content, hosted gender-related discussions, and sponsored on-campus activism/events.
While it was not a space exclusive to feminists, it was funded and fostered by the feminist community. As a matter of fact, its opening was coupled with the establishment of the Women’s Studies program on campus through the Ronya G. Kozmetsky foundation. Its growth also reflects the growth of the Feminist Studies program at Southwestern University, which is covered in a separate Placing Memory entry.
What did the Gender Awareness Center aim to achieve on campus? Amy Whitlock, a GAC coordinator, told The Megaphone (January 25th, 1995) that the GAC served to “ultimately promote the discussion of gender issues here at SU.” These topics included gender equality, sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual violence, and cross-cultural conceptions of gender and sexuality.
The GAC also fostered gender related literature and conversation, aligning itself with feminist goals. For one, it contained a unique library of feminist literature at any student's disposal. One student reported in The Megaphone (December 8th, 1994) that, ”There’s a ton of literature and gender-related publications [at the GAC] that can’t be found elsewhere.” The GAC also promoted gender-related discussion forums with their own bi-annual newsletter, Gendertalk, and hosted weekly luncheons.
The GAC’s steering committee sponsored several events throughout its time on campus. Most notably, the GAC hosted the annual Clothesline Project in the old Student Union Building (SUB) Ballroom starting in 1995. The Clothesline Project is a nationwide project in order to raise awareness for gender-based violence and to honor survivors of violence. Each year, dozens of participants would make and display T-shirts that spoke out about incidents of violence. Phrases on T-shirts (Sourced from The Megaphone, April 27, 1995 & April 18, 1996) included lines such as, “Don’t hit me because I’m beautiful” and “S, J, A, L, J: I don’t know your pain, but I know your strength, You will survive, I love you.” This tradition was continued by the student-led group “Feminist Voices” in the early 2000’s.
As the GAC existed on campus, it became subject to backlash from students. Some students had thought of the GAC as an exclusionary, “militant” space for what right-wing commentators in the 1990s called “feminazis.” The steering committee made it a point to say that the GAC was not in fact exclusionary, but instead intersectional: “The past conception of the GAC was that its focus was an old school feminism, a militant group to be feared,” Emily Davis, a GAC coordinator said to The Megaphone (October 31st, 1996). “It’s not just gay, lesbian, woman centered. The GAC deals with race, class, societal issues because they are inseparable to gender.”
While they had advertised themselves to all genders, the GAC was not accessible to all genders for most of its existence. This is because it was hosted in the McCullough building, an all-girl’s dorm, from the years 1989 to 1996. Then, for a few years afterward, the GAC was located at the Lord Center Community Building. It had finally moved into an entirely gender inclusive space in the year 2000, with its final move into the 3rd floor of the McCombs Campus Center. On a similar note: only a couple years later, Women’s Studies had also changed its name to Feminist Studies.
As of now, it’s uncertain as to where the GAC has gone. The latest mention of the GAC was their sponsorship and collaboration with SU Allies for Drag Ball back in 2006. What we know for sure is that while the Feminist Studies department still stands, the GAC as a collective student/faculty/staff space has dissolved.
Furthermore, there is currently no other space on campus that resembles the GAC. The GAC was unique because it was a constant, physical space dedicated to gender-related discourse and literature.
A space like this is still much needed for many, but especially for gender-nonconforming and/or queer folk on campus because the GAC had challenged gender normatives through outlets of discussion and created a safe counter-space in the heart of campus. With the current existence of the Feminist Studies department, it only makes sense for Southwestern to additionally provide spaces like the GAC as a student-centered counterpart.
