ANNUAL REPORT (GRANT #845-500)

March, 1984 - February, 1985*

Community College Curriculum Project
Center for the Study of Women and Society

*Although the grant period officially began on March 1, 1984, the money
was not received by the Center for the Study of Women and Society until
late June, 1984. As such, this report covers an eight month period.

The primary goal of this grant is to integrate Women's Studies
scholarship into the curricula of the Community Colleges. Recent
pedogogical approaches and writings in Women's Studies, as well as
the sentiments of the project participants, encouraged us to expand
the goal to include topics and scholarship relevant to issues of race,
ethnicity and class. Conference participants also felt that the
collection and assessment of Women's Studies "packages" and their
implementation in courses by a few faculty was a too limited goal
and that a "product" in the form of a publication which would assist
all motivated faculty in designing more balanced courses would be
desirable. This was agreed upon and the Guide will be published
during the Fall, 1985 semester.

During the summer of 1984, Rose Caporrimo, the research assistant
on the grant, researched available Women's Studies material, collected
bibliographies, analyzed Women's Studies course outlines and ordered
books and materials judged relevant and useful for the Community
Colleges. As faculty scatter during the summer months, it was
impossible to contact potential project participants from the Community
Colleges. As such, the summer work was carried out under the super-
vision of the Project Director, with the consultation of Dorothy Helly,
the Women's Studies Coordinator at Hunter College and someone with
expertise in this kind of curriculum project.

In the Fall, 1984 semester, faculty from the Community Colleges
were contacted and their involvement in the project discussed at
length with them and administrative personnel in their colleges, when
required. This later act, seemingly an imposition at the time, turned
out to be advantageous as it assisted us in obtaining administrative
support for the project. Indeed, we have succeeded in expanding the
network of faculty, staff and administrators at the Comnunity
Colleges who are taking an active interest in the project and have
offered assistance. Several other, smaller projects, concerned with
women’s status in the Community Colleges and with Women's Studies at
the Community Colleges are occurring and our project dove-tails well
with these. We are in constant communication with these people, who
have offered us information and assistance.


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The Community College participants are:
Alline De Vore, Dept. of Behavioral Science, Kingsborough Community College
Liza Fiol-Matta, English Department, Hostos Community College
Geraldine Grant, Anthropology Department, LaGuardia Community College
Nan Bauer Maglin, English Department, Manhattan Community College
Laura Polla Scanlon, Writing & Speech Department, New York City Technical
Joan Seals, Student Activities Director, Bronx Community College
Boydena Wilson, History Department, Queensborough Community College.

Dorothy Helly, as mentioned above, is the primary consultant on the grant.
Andree McLaughlin and Ana Celia Zentella will consult on materials relevant
to Women of Color. Additional consultants from CUNY, primarily from the
Community Colleges, have been used when their expertise is required.
Preference for Community College faculty as consultants to the grant will
be continued.

The beginning phase of the grant involved participants delineating
specific goals for the project. In addition to those mentioned above,
they agreed that they would like to work during the summer, rather than
designate two members to receive release time (particularly since schedules
for the Spring had already been set and some were concerned about incurring
bad feelings with their Department Chairs). It was decided that only
Liberal Arts courses would be targeted. Specifically, we would direct our
efforts toward those Liberal Arts courses which have the highest registration
and which are most likely to include non-Liberal Arts students.

The remainder of the Fall semester and early Spring semester was
Spent gathering data on the status of Women's Studies and women students
at the Community Colleges and on those courses which met the above criteria.
That has been completed,

An analysis of the organization ofthe different Community Colleges
revealed tremendous diversity. Student requirements and preferences
varied, as did course offerings. As a result it was agreed that the
material for incorporation into courses would be organized by topic,
rather than by course. Courses offered in the various disciplines touch
upon many common topics although they are approached from different
perspectives. Women and Work, for example, may be addressed in anthropology
courses, sociology courses, economics courses, health courses and so forth,
The topical approach would involve global topics and subtopics with
annotated bibliographies from different disciplinary perspectives. In
this way, any motivated faculty member could refer to the topics and
select appropriate subtopics and related readings for their courses.
Participants are presently engaged in working on this and will continue
this endeavor during the summer.


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In the Fall, 1985 semester, participants will implement this material
into their courses and evaluate its effectiveness. The Guide for the
Community College faculty will be published.

The above information relates directly to the outlined grant project.
Several other activities which are relevant to the goals of the grant
and which involved the participants either in their design or in their
attendance were carried out during the year.

Sisterhood is Global: A Symposium on the Changing Status of Women
Throughout the World

On November 17 and 18, 1984, "Sisterhood is Global: A Symposium
on the Changing Status of Women Throughout the World" was sponsored
by the Center for the Study of Women and Society, Graduate Center, CUNY
This symposium was made possible in part by grants from the New York
Council for the Humanities, Chemical Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the
Rockefeller Foundation and was held at Hunter College through the cooperation
of the Hunter College Women's Studies Program. Prominent women leaders
dealt with issues of universal concern to women stressing common concerns
as well as regional diversity. The panelists included women from Belgiuw,
Brazil, the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Greece, India, Italy,
Libya, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Pacific Islands,
Palestine, Poland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Yugostavia and Zambia. Moderators
from the New York area were able to tie the issues raised by panelists to
the experience of women living in the United States. In addition to the
symposium itself, the two-day meeting included book displays and a Women's
Shrine designed by Betsy Damon.

Sue Rosenberg Zalk, the Director of the Center for the Study of
Women and Society, opened the symposium with a description of the planning
involved in bringing the participants together. In the first session,
panelists discussed women's health needs as a reflection of social and
political change. The panelists agreed that health care should not be seen
as a narrow issue, but as one that encompasses a number of women's issues.
Although the panelists represented various backgrounds including industri-
alized and developing countries with a wide range in the quality of health
care available to women, they all saw a need for involvement at the
community level and for providing education and information so that women
could be actively involved in their own health care. The second panel
stressed the importance of cuitural traditions on women's legal, social
and political experiences. Participants noted the responses of women
living under diverse political regimes to political, social and legal
inequality. A common theme appeared as panelists stressed the way women,
denied access to formal sources of power, developed informal methods of
changing their societies. The formal/informal question was also discussed
by members of the third panel in a consideration of women's economic roles
in countries at various levels of development. As a response to the increasing


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femininization of poverty, both in the United States and in the rest
of the world, panelists noted the real success of women working in the
more informal economic structures.

The second day of the symposium began with a discussion by those on
the fourth panel of changes in employment patterns using a variety of
models. From using employment at the United Nations itself to discussing
employment in Communist countries, developing countries, and newly inde-
pendent countries, panelists found a variety of ways to make clear that
changes at a theoretical level are far easier to attain than the real
economic changes that have an impact on women's lives. The day concluded
with a wide-ranging discussion by those on Panel 5 of the importance of
education and an international feminist perspective on true societal change,

The content of these panels was directly related to the Community
College Project as it addressed the status of women from diverse ethnic,
racial and social class backgrounds. Summaries of these panels and the
Symposium program are attached (Appendix A). Panel presentations have
been transcribed and are available to CUNY faculty.

As a result of the success of this Symposium, Center members have
decided to run an annual international conference. We are presently
writing up a grant proposal for one to be held next spring on "Journalism
from a Feminist Perspective: An International View." Manjula Giri, who
was a participant in the Sisterhood is Global Symposium and is presently
at the Graduate Center and on the Women's Center staff, is a journalist
from Nepal and will organize the conference.

Gender and Race at CUNY: Strategies for Change

In collaboration with the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs, the Friends
of Women's Studies at CUNY, and the CUNY Women's Coalition, the Center for
the Study of Women and Society sponsored an in-house conference on issues
of gender and race at CUNY which was held on May 30, 1985. The topics
addressed were: Balancing the curriculum for gender and race; Gender and
race in teaching and learning; and the Professional status and development
of women and minority faculty. The conference was attended by faculty,
staff and students and was viewed as most successful by those attending
the conference. The conference is directly related to the Community
College project and to the goal of assisting the CUNY colleges in
developing and enhancing women's studies programs and courses.

Several participants in the grant proiect were involved in the
pianning of the conference and some presented papers at the conference.
The conference program is enclosed. (Appendix B).

Newsletter

The Ford Foundation provided funds for the publication of a newsletter
which provides a vehicle for the communication of activities generated


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from the Women's Center. In addition, the Newsletter informs readers of
Women's Studies events at the various CUNY branches, conferences and
meetings of interest, commentaries on issues of concern to Women's Studies
(e.g. funding patterns for research on women) and reviews of books about
women or by CUNY Women's Studies faculty. This newsletter is sent to
faculty, students and staff throughout CUNY as well as Women's Studies
programs throughout the country, women's organizations in the metropolitan
area, and unaffiliated people who have expressed an interest in receiving
it. One Newsietter was published this Spring and is enclosed (Appendix C).
Another is planned for early Fall and, if funds are available, it is the
intention of the Center staff to produce a newsletter bi-monthly.

CUNY Feminist Network Directory

The CUNY Feminist Network is a network of faculty, staff and students
throughout CUNY who are involved in Women's Studies. The feminist network
was first organized by the Women's Center and resulted in the CUNY Feminist
Directory. This directory identifies Women's Studies scholars in CUNY,
their areas of research and interest, the courses they teach, and a select
list of relevant publications. The Women's Center is presently in the
process of up-dating this publication which should be compieted and in
print by the Summer, 1985. The up-dated directory is being sponsored by
the Ford Foundation grant.

Other Related Non-Funded Activities

Friends of Women's Studies is a group formed by the Office of Academic
Affairs which addresses academic concerns related to all women at CUNY.
Its primary goal is to encourage curriculum revision to more accurately
reflect information about and the perspectives of the diverse population
of women in the CUNY system. The Center Director is active in this
organization and has been successful at interfacing activities with this
organization and the Center.

The Center has co-sponsored meetings, seminars and workshops with
other CUNY colleges and with non-academic organizations in the Metropolitan
area. Thus, for example, we collaborated with the Women's Studies program
at Brooklyn College on a conference on Culture and Change and on June 18
we will cc-sponsor a seminar on Women and Economic Planning with the
National Association of Young Professional Women.

Center members consult with a number of Women's and girl's organizations.
Thus, we have been involved in a workshop by the Girl's Clubs of America,
the Women's Legislative Conference and the Center for Women in Government.
We are a member of the National Women's Research Coalition (a consortium
of Women's Research Centers and Institutes) and attend various Women's
conferences and meetings.

The Women's Center is in the process of up-dating a previous publi-
cation, A Guide to Collections on Women in the New York Area. This project
is being undertaken in collaboration with the Association of College
Research Libraries, New York Chapter.


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The Center offers the status of Visiting Scholar and Research
Associate to scholars who are actively involved in research and
scholarship on women. This past year we had three foreign visiting
scholars: Paola Zaccaria (Italy), Yolande Cohen (Canada) and Manjula Giri
(Nepal). Several scholars from the United States have also participated
in Center activities in the role of Visiting Scholar or Research Associate.
They participate in Center activities and engage in formal (e.g. seminars)
and informal dialogue with students and faculty.

The Community College Curriculum Project, the two conferences and
the various seminars were all aspects of student development, as well as
faculty development, and designed to enhance Women's Studies at CUNY.
In addition, the Center reactivated the Feminist Students GQrganization
at the Graduate School. This student group is involved in Center activities
and provides a liaison with students throughout the Graduate Center. The
Center organized a committee of Graduate School faculty and students with the
goal of designing and implementing a Certificate Program in Women's Studies
at the Graduate School. Dialogue on this has been occurring over the past
five years. This year, however, a proposal has been completed and submitted
for consideration. After the initial meetings, leadership emerged and the
Center was no longer required to take responsibility for the project although
its staff and affiliates remain active members in the Committee. This sepa-
ration was desired as the Women's Center and a Women's Studies Certificate
Program have a different focus although overlapping concerns.

Reguest for Extension of the Grant

I am requesting that the grant be extended until December 31, 1985.
The reasons for this request are evident in the content of this report.
The grant was originally submitted and funded as an 18 month project, to
begin March 1, 1984 and end August :20, 1985. The money from the Ford
Foundation was received several months late. The extension will return
it to an 18 month period. In addition, as the money was received during
the summer, when I first became Director of the Women's Center, participants
could not be solicited and selected until the Fall. Although work on the
project continued throughout the Summer, the role of the Community College
participants was delayed. As such, the implementation of the grant results
will take place during the Fall, 1985 semester. An extension is required
to effectively compitete this project.

Funding Explanation

Funds are being spent as designated by the original proposal, with
the modification that $1,500 was used toward the Sisterhood is Global
Symposium with the permission of the Ford Foundation. The report from
the Research Foundation gives mere detail on expenditures.

Concern was expressed about the small amount of money spent from the
grant. As I discussed with Alison Bernstein, about 40% of the grant was
designated for faculty stipends for the Community College participants in
the project, consulting fees and faculty release time. CUNY faculty


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can not be given stipends, or even consultation fees, if they come

through the Research Foundation during the academic year, so that money
will be paid out during the Summer. For practieal reasons related to

the time the grant money was received and the expressed wishes of the
Community College participants, rather than designate two faculty members
for release time, which would slow the project down as it would have to

be this coming Fall, all participants have agreed to work during the
Summer so that the outcome of the grant can be implemented in the Fall.
The money designated for faculty release time for two of the members

will be used to compensate the participants. This will require permission
from the Ford Foundation. I can anticipate no objection to this as

the money is being used toward the same end, and is only being distributed
among the participants. In fact, this design seems advantageous as it will
facilitate the continuation of the present involvement of all seven
Community College participants and provide each Community College with

one "expert" on the topic. This will benefit future related projects

at the Community Colleges,