BYU’s decision to dissolve the Women’s Research Institute is causing controversy across campus regarding women’s rights and opportunities.
The institute, which was organized to promote the study of women’s issues, will be disbanded and the women’s studies minor will now be administered by the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences.
Carri Jenkins, BYU spokeswoman, said the changes are a step forward.
“The reorganization is taking place to strengthen the program and not to save money,” Jenkins said. “We hope students and others will look closely at what is happening and note that this will significantly expand resources for research.”
Students upset about the decision, meanwhile, are making and selling activist shirts to express their feelings. A Facebook group with about 350 members is supporting the cause and making noise about the issue. There is a meeting today from 7-8 p.m. in 270 SWKT to discuss the issue of inequality.
Sara Vranes, sociology major from San Francisco, is also president of “Parity,” a gender equality club on campus.
Vranes has contacted many professors and faculty about the dissolved institute and said this is a careless decision on the university’s part.
“For so long women have been under-researched and under-studied,” Vranes said. “BYU is
already in question for their equality and patriarchal nature and this will only fuel the fire.”
The news has spread fast through the world of academia, with students and faculty members throughout the country concerned that women are being undermined.
Michelle Kendall is a 1977 BYU graduate in nursing, and currently working on her master’s in nursing education. She heard about the issue through the recently created Facebook page.
“I am concerned that robbing the Women’s Research Institute will diminish the ability for women to have a voice in society,” Kendall said. “We are amazing women, but our story is not told and we deserve to be studied.”
Nathanial Pickett, a history graduate from Blue Springs, Mo. does not agree with the decision BYU has made.
“This is a ridiculous and foolish decision to cut the Women’s Research Institute, because BYU and the church already have a bad record about women’s rights,” Pickett said. “The message it sends to eliminate a group for minorities is that the college doesn’t care about the group.”
Jenkins and sociology professor Renata Forste, who will now chair the Women’s Studies Committee, assure the students and faculty that the decision to disperse the institute will not diminish women’s studies research.
Faculty across campus can now apply for the new Emmeline B. Wells Grant, supporting up to $25,000 of research on an annual basis.
“I really don’t think of the institute as being dissolved, rather it being dispersed,” Forste said. “We will now be able to focus more on the individual aspects of the research by getting a strong committee together and focus on the curriculum and advertising for the program.”
The current director for the Institute, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, will be joining the psychology department.
The changes will take effect January 2010.
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It appears not everyone has seen the updated information from the Academic Vice President's office: http://avp.byu.edu/academic-vice-president/wri-letter/
I think this is a great move. Women are here to stay and we have always had a big place in society. I don't understand what all the fear is about. We are increasing in strength in society and will continue to do so today and in the years to come. With all the panic that seemed palpable in this article, I think the activists are sending the wrong message. We don't need to panic. Our program is being made stronger...move with the flow ladies. We are talking the bigger picture here. Don't be afraid of change. Change means progress, especially where the family is concerned; whether talking about a family of 1 or 10. I garner strength from the speech given by Julie B. Beck. She is a strong and intelligent woman who knows her purpose. Maya Angelou is another such woman. Big picture ladies!
As a recent BYU graduate, a current BYU grad student, and an alumnus of the Women's Studies program, I am heartbroken and disturbed by this decision. The Women's Research Institute has always been a beacon of hope to many of us who felt concern over issues relating to gender and women. Issues like domestic abuse, eating disorders, and pornography. Through the Women's Research Institute, I learned how to conduct extensive and professional research into issues that most Latter-day Saints care about.
Although BYU is setting aside some of the money they are saving by cutting the Institute, and using that money for a campus-wide faculty grant, they are removing the central location that is absolutely necessary for the kind of interdisciplinary work that the WRI has always produced so well. Without that collaboration the research, the faculty, and the student body will all suffer. This decision is a horrible mistake.
As a student at Brigham Young University, I implore leaders to recognize the political, spiritual, and scholarly ramifications of the elimination the Women's Research Institute. Have we so easily forgotten Spencer W. Kimball's words:
"Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world...will be drawn to the church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the church reflect RIGHTEOUSNESS and ARTICULATENESS in their lives...FEMALE EXEMPLARS OF THE CHURCH WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT FORCE IN BOTH THE NUMERICAL AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN THE LAST DAYS." (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 103–4.)
Leaving women and gender studies out of the university research curriculum is a disheartening public move which has left many of the university's students and faculty heartbroken. The WRI is the only organization in the world to have developed an autoethnographical history for LDS Women, something we are sorely lacking.
WHERE IS MY PROGRAM?
WHERE IS MY VOICE?
WHERE IS MY BYU?
As a BYU graduate and one who enjoyed the benefits of the WRI, I am deeply saddened to see this wonderful institution dissipate. Why is BYU administration allowing this to happen? What are they going to do with the monies that were allocated to the WRI? I do not believe that this streamlining will strengthen anything, and I have a hard time believing that this is not an issue about money, money to redistribute elsewhere, like the business school. I feel like the BYU administration and the apostles and church leaders are sending mixed messages. We hear from various church leaders that they value the education of women, and that being a woman is a noble calling. By shutting down the WRI I feel that they are not heading the counsel of church leaders to help the status and welfare of women succeed. I truly hope that the BYU administration can reconsider their decision and realize that is a HUGE mistake!! A mistake that affects all women!
I'm really disappointed in the BYU administration for cutting this invaluable resource to students and faculty who are interested in quality scholarly research that can have a great effect on the current discourse in gender studies. The WRI is more than an institution; it signals where BYU's priorities are and what they value. Even if they feel they are increasing efficiency, it still doesn't change the fact that they are sending a message to BYU, the LDS population, and the rest of the world.
Gender issues have always and will continue to be vital to understanding history, modern life, and the eternal roles of men and women in the gospel. If we eliminate a site for well-informed and good-intentioned people, then we are committing a great tragedy in the world of scholarship and knowledge, which is central to the church's mission.
I doubt that BYU understood the implications of the decision to dissolve the women's research institute. Not only will it damage the public perception of BYU--and the church--and its opinion of women, it will also affect the scholarship taking place at BYU. I am an active member and BYU graduate, and I know that women have their place both in academia and the church. However, this decision will make it difficult for other people to see that. I've written more about it here http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2363642/brigham_young_universit...
Forste calls it a "dispersal" and claims that the original purposes of the institute will remain strong. How is it possible to "disperse" resources, professors, students, and programs all across the campus and expect the objectives of interdisciplinary research to remain strong?
As a BYU alum, as is my husband, we have greatly enjoyed the WRI and it's many programs and publications. This institute is unique in the academic world because it is the ONLY place where gender research can be informed by LDS doctrines, moving us toward a greater understanding of the Plan of Happiness for us all. We are a strong voice only when we remain united and interdisciplinary - not "dispersed" and underfunded. The WRI received over 50% of its funding from outside sources. Even with the continued grants BYU is proposing to offer, it will not match the resources and capabilities the WRI already had.
“This is a ridiculous and foolish decision to cut the Women’s Research Institute, because BYU and the church already have a bad record about women’s rights,” Pickett said. “The message it sends to eliminate a group for minorities is that the college doesn’t care about the group.”
I guess I didn't realize that women, being about 50% of the population, were a minority! Since when did we have to study "women" as if they were lab rats?
Kendall said. “We are amazing women, but our story is not told and we deserve to be studied.”
These quotes are ridiculous. And to me personally, they sum up the bogus area of study known as "women's studies". Go find something of substance to study. Good riddance to the program.
I think that the wrong focus has been placed on the WRI program. I truly understand that from the administrations perspective it looks like they are helping. There is more money for research. The problem is the heart of the research has been removed. The WRI program could be very easily strengthen where it is, and it could retain the interdisciplinariness that makes it so valuable.
The WRI was always more than just the Woman Studies minor and the research. It was also a very powerful message to the world that the LDS church took women seriously. It was never a huge organization, but it was growing and now, just as it was gathering the needed momentum this happened.
The world is never going to understand women, their role, their power, and their true potential as we can from and LDS perspective. To remove the institute that was the face of that correct understanding is truly a tragedy. But there is always hope right?
It would be one thing to shut down a program and explain that it is because of money, or this is because we don't have the [wo]man power to keep it going, but it is another thing to do it secretly and not explain reasonings. The council that shut it down briefly said that it was because of money, but a program that has $25,000 annual funding at least is not short of money, and so now the question is where will this money now go? Why did they not tell the student body, consisting of 48% women, that this program would no longer be around? It had to be found out through outside sources, through former students involved in women's research around the world. This is where the real problem is, is why does BYU have to be so secretive about getting rid of this program. Are they doing something wrong? Was there a hope that they wouldn't get caught? I am one of the nearly 15,000 women on BYU's campus and I got the message clear that our numbers are not as important as the rest.
I think that, in theory, spreading woman's research across a wider spectrum of researchers and professors is an understandable attempt at expanding the scope of what's being done at the WRI.
In practice, I believe that it will end woman's research at BYU. I don't think this because BYU professors hate women, I think this because the WRI created contingencies for specific professors that obligated them to get specific work done. With the contingencies diluted or removed (I'm not certain what BYU's specific plan is) and the burden of production not placed solely on the back of any single program or group of professors, it will be easy for any professor in any department to rationalize ignoring the topic completely. Professors in Education will still need to publish education research; as will professors in Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology. If conducting research in one field is a requirement and conducting research in another is optional, it seems fairly clear which research will not get done when family, deadlines, and church make strong bids for a professor's time. I hope BYU will reconsider their decision.
Why do people fly off of the handle instead of look at what is really happening. It sounds like women's issues will still be studied, just in a different college. What is the problem? If people would read the whole story then let it happen for awhile, they could intelligently decide if it was really a good or bad decision. If people would follow Christ instead of Satan, we wouldn't cause our own problems.
Nan, I'd actually recommend that you look a little more closely at the details. Yes, the Women's Studies minor is being moved to a new college instead of being dissolved. But the Women's Research Institute is indeed being shut down. And just a tiny fraction (no more than 1/8, and I'd guess even less than that) of the budget the WRI put toward women's research is being put into a campus-wide faculty grant.
Plus, this decision disperses more than 80 interdisciplinary faculty who were involved with the WRI. Women's Studies is a field that depends on interdisciplinary research, so even the aspects of the WRI that BYU is keeping alive are likely to wither and fade. Sad, but true.
As for your comment about following Christ versus Satan - I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were just trying to make people mad, since the comment makes no sense in the context of your argument.
Research institutes like the WRI provide two important services. First, they provide funding for research. BYU's announced how they're going to keep the funding open. Second, they provide a place for scholars interested in similar topics to get together, talk, and gain new insights that will aid their research. Unfortunately, nothing has been announced yet that will take the place of the WRI in doing this.
Comments in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News have questioned why we need a separate program for women at BYU. After all, the church believes in equality of the sexes, and there's no "Men's Research Institute." Here's the thing: we believe in equal partnerships, in women having equal standing with men, in men and women treating each other with respect and learning from each other's perspectives. This is an approach that is missing in many other gender and women's studies programs in the U.S. We need to have the gospel perspective on gender research that's available through the WRI. We need to keep the WRI.
As a woman and graduate of BYU in both my graduate and undergraduate studies I commend the university for taking this step.
The days of ERA and NOW are past and funds do not need to be used to encourage female activists to look for reasons to feel oppressed.
It seems the whole country is looking for victimhood, and BYU does not need to buy into that agenda. Women are not victims and in our 50 plus years of experience are rarely if ever discriminated against in the present. How about if we focus on what is on the inside, instead of what gender we are?
You should drop by the WRI some time and discover what they're all about. Your comments make me think you'd really like what you'd see. The WRI provides an area for scholars who are interested in women's issues to come together and collaborate, not becuase women are victims who deserve special treatment, but because women are human beings, and women matter. And because the issues that affect women affect everyone. Just think about how much of a difference the women in your life and in your family have made in *your* life.
You may not be aware of this, but in recent years there has been a huge push in most brands of feminism to empower women as individuals, rather than drawing like to victimizations. Victimizations still happen, and issues such as rape and domestic abuse still legitimately victimize countless women. But feminism, Women's Studies, and the Women's Research Institute do anything but portray women as helpless victims.
I really question BYU's decision to disperse this institute. Even though women are a majority in the world we are still a minority. Women have been overworked and underpaid for centuries. We have had to fight for God given rights and continue today. This institute was set up for women to assist women to become more than what we have for centuries been thought of. We are intelligent, active, knowledgable human beings that have had to fight for equal rights, equal pay, and equal education. Why would this university want to take away something so important to women? Did they consider bringing their position to the women it would affect? If not they should have before making a final decision. Again, the WOMEN did not really have a say in this did they? If this decision is going to help women then why was it kept a secret until the decision was made? I think it should have been brought out in the open and the people it would affect have an opportunity to voice their concerns and have answers given.
I think we need to realize where BYU's priorities are. For example, huge amounts of funding is allocated towards athletics. Athletes are given pocket money, free athletic clothes through BYU contracts with NIKE and even rent money. Just think if our researchers were given spending money so that they could really focus on researching social issues and come up with viable solutions. BYU's decision shows that they are not really the LORD'S University but rather a University with vested interest in becoming a "well known and respected" school, although I feel that is even in question through their recent decision to cut the WRI. Too many important programs at BYU have been cut. Being one of the few remaining Social Work bachelors on campus and now seeing this... you can be assured, BYU, that you are never getting any alumni contributions from me. Nothing screams ignorance more than cutting an institute supporting women's issues. No matter what they say about "dispersing" or "expanding"....they should keep the WRI AND give more money to expand. Bad form BYU, bad form.
One: Jenkins encourages students to "look closely at what is happening and note that this will significantly expand resources for research." Where is information available for interested people to do that, besides in this one Daily Universe story?
Two: Forste says they'll be "getting a strong committee together and focus on the curriculum and advertising for the program." What program is she referring to? Does this mean the Women's Studies Minor will continue? What department will house it, and can the University guarantee that this department will have enough vested interest in the minor to sustain it in the long term?
Why does the Woman's Research Institute have to be dissolved? Could this not have been handled some other way? There are alot of people upset about this decision, but more so by the way it has been handled. I wonder if it was thought out properly or perhaps the thought was, maybe this minority group wouldn't notice?
While the stance is that there isn't any budgetary motivation behind the cut, I can't help but look at the PhD in History, the BA in Social Work, or the Publication Lab--all cut--and ask: was there nothing budget-motivated behind that?
We need sports, sciences, business, and technology, but at BYU, we have a unique opportunity to take those things and put them in a light-of-the-gospel context--something that women's studies and other liberal arts programs help to accomplish.
After all, Nephi was taught in all the language of his father, and Mosiah's sons only became men of understanding after having learned Mosiah's language and scripture. If we cannot learn as a student body to speak the language of equality (and not equivalence) between women and men, what hope do we have of truly embracing and living the gospel in anywhere but a vacuum?
I empathize with my fellow students devoted to equality. Women have been set aside or placed on a pedestal for what seems always. But if we really want to talk about equality, why isn't there a race studies minor/major? Let the rhetorical effect sink in for a moment.
Again, I value both the study of race and women, especially female minorities. But my point is that an institute can facilitate but will not hinder your studies--if you don't let it. I feel the pain of losing the WRI, but you can still go out there and get what you need.
I have been studying race at BYU by finding professors that also share that interest. Would a race studies minor be nice? Sure, but I don't need the mandate of a minor to tell me that I am studying race. So come what may, the study of women will go on!
I don't think anyone is planning on abandoning women's studies simply because BYU is shutting down the WRI. But we still need the WRI, just as much as we do indeed need a program in race studies. Two wrongs most certainly do not make a right.