The UW-Madison Campus Women’s Center obtained its eligibility to be funded by student segregated fees after pitching its programs and goals for the upcoming school year.
Among the CWC’s top funding priorities for the future are core programs, its representatives said at the meeting. These programs are available to all students, and according to the CWC, more than 75 percent of the beneficiaries are students.
Such programs include events like the Condom Crawl, during which CWC members distribute free, safe sex supplies and information to students and “increase campus’ knowledge of healthy sexual practices” by encouraging students to “participate productively in civic discourse about safer sex and sex education,” organization representative Zawadi Carroll said.
Another such program is Kid’s Time, an opportunity for student volunteers to provide free childcare for student-parents. CWC representatives explained that the program is mutually beneficial, as the volunteers receive childcare training while the student-parents are allowed time and opportunity to finish schoolwork.
The CWC also looks to offer educational workshops in order to foster civic knowledge and engagement by heightening awareness of and activism in current social issues.
Workshops span from events like Kid’s Night Out, which allows students to take advantage of experiential learning in childcare, to Feminist Campaigns, which aim to spread awareness of feminist issues both within and beyond the UW-Madison community.
The campaigns work specifically through the production and distribution of student-created, issue-specific publications like magazines, or “zines.”
These educational workshops are requestable by dorms, Greek organizations and other interested student groups, representatives explained.
In addition to their core programs and educational workshops, the CWC also looks to continue with its supportive programming, including hosting speakers, organizing feminist literature in a resource library and running Girls Empowered.
Girls Empowered works to pair middle school girls in the Madison area with UW-Madison women, in order to build and develop mentoring relationships and discuss feminist topics to which younger girls are usually not exposed to until college.
According to the CWC, the organization “does not receive funding from any other university unit funded by student segregated fees.” Therefore, SSFC funding would go toward the programs and workshops outlined above.
