As Women’s History Month came to an end on Monday, Ramapo’s Women’s Center held a closing luncheon to honor the women of the Ramapo community and celebrate the center’s 50 years on campus.
The event welcomed current and former Women’s Center staff, featuring student and staff speakers, as well as a speech from President Cindy Jebb.
Student speaker, Alternate Student Trustee and Student Office Manager for Civic and Community Engagement Center Sarah Glisson shared anecdotes from her childhood, highlighted the importance of community and spoke about the numerous executive orders of the Trump Administration and their impact. Glisson touched on its threats to diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — and Dear Colleague Letters warning about their intent to strip institutions of federal funding.
“We recognize that Ramapo College is not Ramapo College without the diverse students and spaces that make us Ramapo College,” Glisson said. “We are not shaped by the federal naughty or nice list. We are shaped by the students who come to us, who learn from us, grow from us, go out into the world and remember us.”
Glisson mentioned Carol Hanisch’s essay “The Personal Is Political” and the idea that personal identities are political and are subject to regulation.
“If the personal is political,” Glisson said, “I call on us all to recognize that we cannot strive for representation on campus without also striving for representation in government.”
Glisson reminded her audience that the Women’s Center is a space where the Ramapo College community thrives.
“We create our own legacy. We create our own values and we are not defined by the changing ties of partisanship, for community knows no limit, no ballot box, no dear colleague letter,” she said. “Community is unyielding and is reinforced in the face of adversity.”
Glisson then welcomed Ramapo Alumni and former Women’s Center employee Kat McGee, the director of Title IX and Institutional Compliance, on stage.
“The Women’s Center has always welcomed the trailblazers and the dreamers, those who refuse to accept the status quo and who dare to imagine a world where your potential is not limited by gender,” McGee said.
McGee shared about the history of the Women’s Center on campus and her involvement with it throughout her years as a Ramapo College student and how she later ended up working as the center’s coordinator from 2008-15.
“Higher education has been a catalyst for so many of the advancements we’ve seen in gender equality and women’s centers like ours have played a vital role in that progress,” she said. “These centers become spaces for advocacy, support and empowerment.”
McGee also touched on the numerous obstacles women have faced and what obstructs their progress today.
“Access to education is a fundamental civil right, one that countless communities — especially those who have faced systemic discrimination — have fought hard to protect as we witness renewed attacks on education and civil rights,” she said.
McGee then introduced President Jebb, who took the stage to share inspirational personal stories as a woman in leadership and from her lunch with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Jebb also recognized the achievements of the Women’s Center this year and beyond.
“Our shared commitment to honoring women’s achievements and advocating for gender equality has been at the heart of everything we’ve done this month, but not just this month … for the past 50 years,” she said.
Throughout Friends Hall, the Women’s Center displayed archived Women’s History Month posters that once advertised events, guest speakers and performances.
“The celebration today is an opportunity for community and to be reminded of what it is that we fight for,” McGee said.
The event ended with a cake cutting ceremony as an homage to the Women’s Center’s 50th birthday that was celebrated throughout the month of March.
“The Women’s Center is a pillar of student life,” Glisson said in her speech. “It is an inclusive space of unity and reflection, where words become action and action becomes progress.”
jhammer@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Jessica Hammer
