Yes I am a Feminist/Woman. Women as Academic and Administrative Leaders. Assertiveness Training. Networking as Leaders.
If these topics sound appealing or relevant to you, then you might have been wondering where to find the program that facilitates such dialogue on campus.
After a semester hiatus, the Women’s Leadership Training Institute (WLTI), which in the past has covered issues such as those raised above, will return next spring. Coordinators pulled the program for a semester in order to reassess its goals and relevance to women on the Washington University campus. The coordinators of the program should be applauded for this decision, and for taking the time to ensure that the program remains applicable to the female students it directly serves.
In order to facilitate the changes, a task force was developed that was comprised of officials in the Women’s and Gender Studies department, Residential life, Greek Life, the Career Center, and the Office of Student Activities. The group met over the course of the summer and last semester to gauge the effectiveness of the program. Feedback from previous WLTI participants was also considered by the taskforce as they deliberated ways to make the program a more valuable experience for participants.
It is admirable that coordinators of the program, many of whom work in OSA, had the fortitude to pull the program for a semester in order to gauge its viability and make it more relevant to the needs and issues facing female students on campus. While other programs flounder with decreased participation, WLTI organizers took a step back to reevaluate the program with the hopes of making it better, even if that meant not allowing it to continue for a semester.
Since 1985, WLTI has provided students with mentoring opportunities and the chance to engage in dialogue about issues such as career development, financial planning, women in the workplace, feminism, and women and multiculturalism. Originally, the program lasted for an entire year, but in recent years, it was spread out over one semester, with students participating in various workshops every Saturday.
According to Stephanie Kurtzman, Coordinator for Community Service and Women’s Programs in OSA, the changes that are to be implemented will return the program to more of an institute type format, spread across two consecutive Saturdays in the spring semester. She also noted that about 56 women will be able to participate in this spring’s upcoming conference. The four core topics of this year’s institute will be workplace, family and workplace, community, and working for women’s issues. Prominent female leaders from around the St. Louis community will also be present to share their experiences relating to these issues.
Programs such as WLTI remain relevant to the entire campus community, particularly to the women they directly serve. The issues discussed are pertinent to problems that could possibly arise once female students leave the University and enter the professional world. At the same time, the program empowers women to be active participants on this campus, giving them a forum to discuss critical issues that face them now and will continue to test them in the future.
Although women have made strides professionally over the past 25 years, there is still much to be discussed and discovered; inequalities still exist and undoubtedly will continue well into the future. WLTI has the ability to prepare University students for such issues before they even leave campus; for that reason it remains a viable and relevant program, and hopefully will continue to thrive given the time that was spent assessing and improving it over the past semester.