Linda Alcoff thinks women are living in critical times for women’s rights.

As director of the women’s studies department at Syracuse University, Alcoff and many other local feminists are citing the growing need for feminist organizations and activism at the collegiate level because of a resurgence of feminist issues in the national spotlight, such as the recent confirmations of two conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

The confirmations upset the political balance of the court, causing a perceived threat to women’s reproductive rights as a result.

Many colleges in New York state, such as New York University, the State University of New York at Albany, Ithaca College and Pace University, have either campus action networks or official chapters of the National Organization for Women as part of the campus initiative. SU is not one of them.

While Alcoff has never personally considered starting an SU chapter, because she said she believes students should have autonomy over their organizations, Jean Stevens, a senior women’s studies major and former Daily Orange assistant feature editor, said she has tried.

Stevens said she developed an interest in campus activism and feminism and noticed it was hard for students with such shared interests to get together.

After researching potential organizations she could start on campus, Stevens called N.O.W. and inquired about forming a campus action network. After learning of all the paperwork involved and the need to table in the Schine Student Center to attract members, the process started going downhill.

‘It started to rub me the wrong way,’ Stevens said. ‘They were pushing their own agenda on us.’

Stevens learned the college chapters or networks simply carried out whatever national campaign the mother organization was spearheading instead of letting the students set their own priority of issues.

‘I felt like I was being micromanaged,’ she said. ‘It was really intrusive.’

After warnings from friends that N.O.W. was very restrictive and exclusive to predominantly white women, Stevens did not get much support from other feminists on campus.

‘N.O.W. on campus would have sort of dictated to us,’ she said. ‘Some (feminists on campus) believe in more radical politics. We wanted the freedom to make our own agenda.’

Stevens also said she felt N.O.W. was ‘limiting’ in that it only addressed a certain type of feminism: that of the middle and upper-middle class, white and heterosexual women.

She said the reason SU hasn’t succeeded in starting a chapter before or since her attempt is she believes students on campus either subscribe to more liberal politics than N.O.W. or they are satisfied with the student organizations already on campus.

Joan Gabel, an active feminist on campus, elaborated on one of Stevens’ criticisms of N.O.W.

Gabel, a senior in The College of Arts and Sciences, said while she thinks N.O.W. is a great organization that could do the campus good, she thinks part of the reason SU is without one is the population N.O.W. caters to.

N.O.W., whose leadership is still comprised of feminists from the 1970s, is criticized for excluding the issues of women who are not white, heterosexual and of the middle-to-upper class.

Alcoff said another reason N.O.W. has not appeared on the SU Hill is because it is difficult for faculty members to balance the academic study of feminism and gender issues and being an activist.

However, Alcoff said she does see benefits to SU having its own chapter. She said N.O.W. would allow students to do electoral work, such as supporting feminist-friendly candidates and health and education issues, and put effort into national campaigns, such as abortion rights, all while having access to N.O.W.’s resources.

Marcia Pappas, president of N.O.W. New York State, shares a similar viewpoint as Alcoff.

‘There is a whole generation of young women growing up with rights they’ve been born with, and they don’t know how easy it is for them to be taken away,’ she said.

Despite trying to reach out to colleges around the state, Pappas said campus organizations have to start around issues directly affecting students.

One of the major issues today, which both Pappas and Alcoff identified, is reproductive rights.

‘If you can’t control your own reproductive system, you can’t control anything,’ Pappas said.

Stevens said different issues are important to different people, citing self-segregation as SU’s biggest problem. However, she did recognize the high-profile concerns of middle-aged feminists.

‘There is a lot of panic right now with feminist thinkers,’ she said. ‘They are thinking things are reverting.’

N.O.W., the second-oldest civil rights organization, brings name recognition, financial assistance and a plentitude of resources to students.

But Pappas explained an official chapter is an arm or subunit of the national organization and entails some responsibilities college students aren’t interested in.

Each chapter, which requires a minimum of 20 members, is responsible for completing three actions, such as a letter-writing or lobbying campaign. N.O.W. chapters also require a minimum number of members.

Despite the work involved, Pappas said she sees a need for her generation of feminists to pass the torch to younger generations of women, but also recognizes the difficulty of this task.

‘Students are mobile,’ she said. ‘If you don’t have people in place to pass the leadership onto, the chapter can fall by the wayside.’

Amy Doherty, president of N.O.W. Greater Syracuse Area, also said she thinks a N.O.W. chapter at SU would be beneficial because it would bring ‘new blood’ into the movement and would help address issues that are important to young women.

KaeLyn Rich, a recruiter for Vox, a collegiate student organization that unites students as the voices for Planned Parenthood, also said she thinks SU having its own chapter is a good idea because, unlike current campus groups such as Vox and Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment, N.O.W. has a more overarching message.

‘The more organizations we have to focus on the issues, the better,’ Rich said.

Published on February 28, 2006 at 12:00 pm