On Friday, Sept. 21/90, a notable number of U.P.E.I. students took part in the "Take Back the Night March and Celebration" sponsored by the P.E.I. Rape and Sexual Assault centre. Special thanks go out to all those who helped with production and distribution of flyers, the participants, and those who made posters. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the U.P.E.I. Student Union in covering the printing cost of the flyers and supplying U. P.E.I. stickers for the marchers.

This week’s feature article is Women’s Studies at U.P.E.I. There is often a lot of work going on behind the scenes at this university. We'd like to take the space to show you one example. —

» Campus Women

By Ella Holt

Women’s Studies at U.P.E_I. Researched By Tracy Smith

An ad hoc committee on the future of Women- Studies at U.P.E.. was set up in the Spring of 1989. The objectives of this committee as stated by Verner Smitheram, Dean of Arts, in a report released August 31, 1990 were to conduct a review of currant offerings and formulate a five year plan

' for the development of Women’s Studies at U.P.E.I.

This is the case for a women’s program as put forth in the first report of the as hoc continuing committee on the future of Women’s Studies at UPEI:

The Case for Separate Women’s Studics Program

As noted in the Rationale, Women’s Studies is an integral part of a university curriculum. Its role is to give a different lens of analysis, to use women’s perspective, in the total continuum of education. Simply adding on a little bit of knowledge here and a little bit there is not academically sufficient. If it is to fill its place in U.P.E.I. academic offerings, Women’s Studies needs recognition as a valid academic discipline contributing to knowledge and to the development of theories, methodologies and ways of understanding. Because of this, as well as its tremendous productivity and vitality, it is essential that a Women’s Studies Program be separate and autonomous, rather that housed in any existing discipline. Other disciplines will not develop feminist theories nor methodologies, but may test and critique these, strengthening the integration of different disciplines. If women’s Studies is to succeed as integrative and multidisciplinary, other disciplines will need an accessible resource for planning their courses: only an independent identifiable program is able to

September 27, 1990

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