Inmy time here in Hanover, I have found that some strange debates can result from giving academicians too much free time and too little exposure to the outside world.
One such debate is that over "women's space," as applied to the recent proposal to create a "women's issues dormitory" that could house the Women's Resource Center. The arguments behind all of this are ridiculous and are fueled largely by the illogic of the type of academicians I have noted above.
The notion of "women's space" has been cultivated by campus activists in their fight against sexual assault. Since the abuse of women occurs largely at fraternity parties (the main social outlet here at Dartmouth), then we must create "women's space" to offset the fraternity house, which is "men's space."
Now, logic might tell us that the six existing campus sororities offer such "women's space," since they are indeed all-female organizations. But no. Advocates of the women's issues dorm argue that sororities merely reinforce the male-dominated social scene in "men's spaces" on campus.
So, people such as the current Student Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 have argued that we must dedicate a dorm on campus to "women's issues" so that women will have their "space" and everyone will be happy.
What Sichitiu and her cohorts don't seem to realize is that creating a women's issues dorm would do nothing more than provide an illusory cure to a complex problem.
Why must we have a separate dorm for women's support groups? The Women's Resource Center already exists for such a purpose. A dorm would only create a separation of certain women from the rest of the campus. In other words, those living in the women's issues dorm would have a decidedly different experience than a run-of-the-mill student (whether man or woman) in Massachusetts Row.
Do we really want to create yet another separate experience which further fragments our little society here in Hanover? No one would argue against the fact that sexual assault and abuse against women are problems which plague our culture. But do we, at Dartmouth College, really think that we have found an answer in simply creating this gender-based Wonderland where women can ostensibly escape the world's problems?
In Monday's issue of The Dartmouth, Sichitiu commented that she wants to examine the "lack of equity for women's resources," ("SA execs call for look at advising," April 3, 1995) adding that the Women's Resource Center's location in the Choates dorm cluster is indicative of the center's "marginalized" state.
Sichitiu's focus on colorful yet meaningless buzzwords such as "marginalized" illustrates the poverty of her argument. If the location of the WRC makes it "marginalized," then what of the biology department, located even further off campus? Do we need a biological issues dorm also?
And even if we accept Sichitiu's dripping symbolism at face value, it is not hard to see that creating a separate-but-equal women's issues dorm would only serve to further marginalize Dartmouth women.
In the end, we are left back at square one. The lesson to be learned, however, is that merely dedicating a special dorm as "women's space" will make little or no real difference on people's lives.
