The University of Idaho Memorial Gymnasium is one of the oldest athletic buildings on campus. UI volleyball and basketball teams compete within the old brick walls of the gym, but the first floor of the building is also home to a safe space for students — the Women’s Center.
Since 2003, Women’s Center staff have met with students and provided a space for them to gather, communicate and take action, while bleachers are pulled out and balls are bounced on the gym floor above. What was supposed to be a temporary location has housed the Women’s Center for 16 years.
The Memorial Gymnasium is just one of six locations the center has occupied since its doors opened in November 1972. Worried about the high attrition rate of women students, then-UI President Ernest Hartung appointed a committee to study that rate and other issues affecting women on campus.
The committee, housed in Room 104 of the Administration Building — across from Hartung’s office — eventually became the support system and vehicle for change that the Women’s Center is today.
Kay Keskinen, who worked for UI for 31 years, said when the Women’s Center was created, there were not a lot of female role models at the university, so the center provided much-needed support.
Eimilie Darney | Argonaut
Students study on their laptops in the UI Women’s Center before class Feb. 28.
“A lot of women in the faculty track had no mentor to help them through the tenure process,” she said.
Keskinen remembers attending programs in the small, one-room Women’s Center. She said there was not much room for furniture, so everyone sat on the ground on “puffy pillows.” When programs became too large for the area, they would be moved into the Administration Auditorium.
The next year, 1973, the Women’s Center moved across the hall to Room 107 and then to Room 346 during the summer — as computer services moved downstairs, the law program moved into its own building and the Women’s Center was set to transition into the building which also housed the Tutoring and Academic Assistance Center, across from what is now the Idaho Commons.
Keskinen said the building provided a larger, more visible space for the Women’s Center — located in the heart of campus.
In 2001, that building was demolished, sending the Women’s Center to the Theater Arts Annex, a small white building across from the Administration Lawn. In fall 2002, maintenance on frozen pipes led to the discovery of asbestos and lead paint which meant another move for the Women’s Center — to its current location in Memorial Gymnasium Room 109.
Lysa Salsbury, current director of the Women’s Center, said when moved to the current location, the staff was told it was a “temporary emergency move.”
Brian Johnson, assistant vice president of facilities, said the move from the annex to the Memorial Gymnasium occurred at the same time as many UI entities that rented space downtown were moved back to campus, so there was not a lot of flexibility on where the Women’s Center could go.
“The (Memorial) Gym was a space they could fit,” Johnson said. “It kept them in the core of campus, but it reduced their visibility, unfortunately.”
Johnson said there was no “plan B” or clear idea about where the Women’s Center would go next, so it has not moved since.
Rebecca Rod, a former staff member of the Women’s Center, said while the location of the Women’s Center provides privacy and feels “more safe,” it is a fairly small and inaccessible place.
Kay Keskinen | Courtesy
“It certainly has made do over the years, but it is awkward to tell people where it is,” Rod said.
Salsbury also mentioned the privacy of the Women’s Center’s location was a benefit, but she noted there is little walk-by traffic and some people might not know where the center is. Other downsides to the current location include a subpar heating and cooling system and constant noise from the gym.
“When they pull the bleachers down, it’s like the ceiling is going to fall,” Salsbury said.
Salsbury said it would be nice to have a larger space with a multipurpose room for hosting meetings and workshops, in addition to a lounge and access to a full kitchen.
In the next few years, this might be possible.
Johnson said UI has a desire for a new building, called the Tribal and Diversity Center, which would house the Native American Student Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs, LGBTQA Office and the Women’s Center. This new building is first on the list of requests for funding from the state for new buildings, he said.
The university will find out in March if funding for the building is approved, and the new facility would be ready in the next two or three years, Johnson said.
The location of the building will not be determined unless and until planning money is awarded.
Salsbury said being located in the same building as other diversity-centered offices would be advantageous because they all work closely together.
“I mean gender is obviously an important identity, but so is their race and their ethnicity and their cultural background,” she said.
Jordan Willson can be reached at [email protected]
Sandy Fabozzi
Renaming it at this time would also be quite appropriate. It is not a Women's Center, which is inclusive of all women. Instead, it should be correctly renamed "Progressive Women's Center" and it should, I would hope, not receive any state funding as it caters to a segment of the female population.