WGSS Major Program Justification
The Women’s and Gender Studies minor program at CWU is adding a major to our program. The major is designed to be completed in 2 to 2.5 years—approximately 45-50 credits total that could be paired with a wide variety of other majors or minors.
The program would add new majors from within the existing CWU student population to COTS, and would help draw new students to Central as part of a diverse curriculum. Because the major would cover a broad spectrum of issues (including sexuality and gender identity), we are likely to attract interest from a wide range of students. Central has already been recognized as an inclusive campus and expanding our curriculum would reflect the efforts of the university to sustain a diverse learning and working environment. To further these goals, we will also change the name of our program to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS).
A 2013 Digest of Education Statistics report on bachelors degrees awarded by field of study shows growth in the area of ethnic, cultural, gender and group studies over the time period of 1970 to 2012, suggesting increased interest in this area[1]. We have documented student demand through surveys of students in the introductory WGS course, as well as current minors and alumni in December of 2013. Over half (56%) of minors who responded (n=16) indicated they would be interested in a WGS major; 23 percent of students in the introductory course, WGS 201 (n=39), and all WGS alumni surveyed stated that had a WGS major been available when they attended CWU they would have considered declaring (n=6). Increased enrollment in the minor also can be seen as an indicator of growing interest in this area. The WGS program grew from 23 students enrolled as WGS minors in 2013 to 33 students at the end of 2016.
In addition to student demand, a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies major also contributes to CWU’s commitment to help students lead enlightened lives as set out in the vision and mission statements of the Strategic Plan. Of increasing importance in light of recent events in our community and across the U.S., it would contribute to the values of inclusiveness and diversity where CWU must be a place where students, faculty, and staff “feel physically, professionally, and emotionally safe in order to fully engage and benefit from the university experience.” Expanding the program to a major increases the opportunity for students to gain the skills to address critical social issues through the knowledge generated in the classroom and beyond.
As stated in the Strategic Plan, diversity is increasingly the norm in a changing world. A WGSS major in keeping with CWU’s goals related to diversity and inclusivity, will help create a diverse and inclusive learning environment from the broad array of interdisciplinary course offerings to the range of programs and co-curricular activities sponsored by WGSS to encourage a diverse educational experience. Our broad range of programming seeks to represent and give voice to varied interests on our campus and beyond related to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. We believe that developing a WGSS major will make CWU more attractive as a place to work for faculty as well as a more welcoming and empowering learning environment. Having a WGSS major is a concrete indicator of a diverse and inclusive environment where inclusivity is valued. We hope to contribute to CWU’s goal of increased recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in our student population and also faculty with the development of a major.
Our existing WGS program has a history of engagement with partners outside the university. Developing a major in WGSS would only expand our capability to do so. Examples of collaboration between the university and community are: The Washington State’s Women’s Suffrage Centennial Celebration where former WGS Program Director Cynthia Coe and Professor Karen Blair organized CWU faculty and staff and community members in a yearlong celebration featuring speakers, exhibits, art, music and theatre presentations across the university and surrounding communities to celebrate women’s suffrage in the State of Washington. More recently, in the fall of 2014, WGS minors and faculty facilitated a workshop for the Ellensburg school district staff and faculty related to a new district policy on issues related to gender identity of ESD students. Faculty have been invited to conduct the workshop again in February of 2017. In January 2015 WGS minors and program faculty were invited to speak to medical students and faculty members at PNWC on health issues related to the LGBTQ community.
The WGS program also works closely with other organizations on the CWU campus such as the Center for Diversity and Social Justice to sponsor presentations on social issues such as sexual assault on college campuses, human trafficking, LGBTQ discrimination, and gender inequality. There are twenty-three WGS program faculty affiliates comprised of full-time tenure track faculty, non-tenure track faculty and administrators whose interests and expertise extend across eleven departments and programs contributing to our ability to contribute to a diverse learning environment and engagement across the university and community. See http://www.cwu.edu/women-gender/faculty.
[1] Digest of Education Statistics Table 322. 10 Bachelor’s degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by field of study. Selected years, 1970-71 through 2012-13. National Center for Educational Statistics 2015-11. May 2015. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/index.asp
