Women's Resource Center Director Giavanna Munafo said she will continue to push the administration to make the relocation of the center a higher priority. She said it is currently not likely that the center will move from its home in the Choates dormitory cluster.
"I think the institution's priorities are centered in a way that would make it hard for the Women's Resource Center to get that space," she said.
Deputy Provost Bruce Pipes said the relocation of the center is "an item on a list of a number of facilities needs."
He said the movement of the center is on a list with issues like a new space to replace Webster Hall when it becomes a Special Collections Library, new faculty offices, new classroom space and new administrative offices.
Pipes said the current location of the center is more centrally located than other areas where the College previously considered moving it, like the site of the old Mary-Hitchcock Memorial Hospital on the north end of campus.
"I don't know of any obvious place where we could do this," he said. Pipes said on-campus space is extremely limited right now.
Munafo said women who utilize the center would like the center to be moved to a more central location on campus so that more students would be able to take advantage of it.
The center "is not very visible," she said. "For some people that is a barrier for use."
Shilyh Warren '96, who frequently uses the center, said, "The center is definitely out of reach."
"Most people on campus have no idea where it is, and should they actually find out its location, they still have trouble finding it among the Choates," she said.
Warren said the size of the center has also limited its activities.
"I think greater space would be more beneficial than relocation," Warren said. "I think relocation could be beneficial, but something about the separation from campus makes it comfortable, safe and homey."
The Women's Resource Center has been in its "temporary" home in the Choates since 1988.
"When the center was first put in that location in 1988, it was with the understanding that it would be moved to a larger location," said Mary Childers, former director of the Women's Resource Center.
She said she proposed a move two or three years ago, but the plan did not go through. According to Childers, architects drew up a plan for the center to be moved to 44 North College Street.
"That's not very central either," she said. "But that definitely would have been more space."
Childers said on most occasions during her time as director, the space at the center was adequate for the number of people that came for a particular program.
"Many people say that [the center] is peripheral in its location," she said. "I think it's close enough to the center physically if you would like to go there."
"The issue becomes visibility of center more than centrality of location," she said.
