WSU Women*s Center closes in on 50 years

Washington State University Women*s Center Director Amy Sharp describes her job as fun, rewarding — and exhausting.

“You’re swimming in the inequities of what happens to women all across the globe, and here,” Sharp said.

The center works with a cross section of campus organizations through the Coalition for Women Students, including the Association of Pacific and Asian Women; Black Women’s Caucus; FemScouts; Generation Action, the student activist group for Planned Parenthood; Men for Social Change; Mujeres Unidas, representing interests and issues of Chicanas/Latinas; Native American Women’s Association; PERIOD, advocating for menstrual equity; Queer Intersections Association; YWCA at WSU; and a new group, Cougs for Reproductive Freedom.

Last year, the center’s newly formed, student-run feminist publication, Harpy’s Magazine, organized a fair to highlight the groups.

“We really try to amplify their voices,” Sharp said.

Student groups play a similar role in serving students at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, though without a dedicated program.

The school “doesn’t have a women’s center, but serves students through a variety of services, programming, clubs and organizations,” according to a statement from spokesperson Logan Fowler, who noted the school’s spring programming celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX during Women’s History Month.

“... LC State’s history and practice has been to meet and address the needs and interests of various demographic groups by integrating services and supports throughout campus clubs, organizations and programming,” Fowler’s statement read, in part. “This approach has and continues to serve our campus community well.”

The timelines for the women’s centers at University of Idaho and WSU have been similar, with the UI center celebrating 50 years this year and WSU’s doing so in 2024.

“I think we were hot on the tails of the University of Idaho on a lot of Title IX issues,” Sharp said.

She has worked in the realm of women’s issues for most of the past two decades, including at the University of Idaho as a program adviser starting in 2005.

“That really sharpened the lens on feminist issues for me,” she said.

Her position at WSU is state-funded, with the rest of the center’s budget coming from student activity fees.

“So we go before the board every year to ask for funding,” she said.

The amount has been as much as $200,000, though current funding is a little less than that, she said.

Sharp is the only center employee at the moment, but a program coordinator position with historically high turnover will be replaced this school year with an adviser position with better pay and benefits, she said, with the intent of creating a more stable staffing situation for the office.

Though funding has been “a bit of a roller coaster,” even just in the five year’s she’s been there, the center’s vital role continues to be recognized, Sharp said.

“The proof is in the pudding,” she said. “The Women*s Center is still here.”

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.

What’s with the asterisk?

In 2018, the name was updated from the Women’s Resource Center to the Women*s Center. The similar name was kept to honor the history of the women at WSU, especially the Association of Women Students (now the Coalition for Women Students), which began in 1912. The asterisk is a way of saying there’s more to this story. Anyone of any gender is welcome.

— women.wsu.edu/womenstars-center