The Women's Center is excited to announce that the Returning Women Students Scholarships Application for 2014-2015 is now available. The deadline for submission is Friday, April 4, 2014.

This common application enables eligible students to apply for more than one of the Returning Women Students Scholarships using the same application. The three available scholarships are:

-Charlotte W. Newcombe Scholarship & The UMBC Scholarship for Mature Students
-AEGON Scholarship
-The Richard & Roselyn Bryson Neville Memorial Fund for Returning Women Scholarship

All undergraduate students over the age of 25 and with at least 60 credits may be eligible. Each scholarship has additional eligibility requirements which can be found on the common application instructions. 

The application is attached to this announcement. Please be sure to read over the eligibility requirements before applying. 

If you have any questions concerning the application process or the scholars program requirements, please contact Jess at womens.center@umbc.edu. 

We will also be hosting 2 informational sessions related to the application process and scholars program requirements. The information sessions will be held in the Women's Center on Wed., Feb 19th from between 12-1pm and Wed., March 12th between 5:45-6:45pm.

Applications are due Friday, April 5th at 4pm!! 

Loyal.Constant.

Strong and Resilient.

Season to Season.

Survival.Growth.

These are just some of the many qualities of the Wye Oak Tree – Maryland’s state tree – and so many of the same qualities we find in the Women’s Center at UMBC. For some, a tree provides shade to rest under on a hot summer day. To others it provides leaves that fall to the ground to play in on a crisp autumn day. In the winter months, we look at trees covered in frost and snow with wonder and awe until we finally see the earliest buds come to life once again on the first days of spring. The tree is many thingsto many people, just like the Women’s Center is to the UMBC community. We are a place to find comfort, a listening ear, and friendship. Much like the tree, we seek to be strong but flexible, loyal but open to growth, courageous to challenges but loving with support. Our roots dig deep into the grounds of feminism and our many limbs reach further towards social justice, activism, and the honoring all of our intersecting identities.  

This new logo reflects our ongoing growth and evolution as a women’s center which is grounded in our steady core values and reliable strengths so many UMBC community members have come to know and love. As always, and much like the great Wye Oak beckons, all are welcomed in our space, so long as they respect each other, their stories, their experiences, their potential.

Many thanks to UMBC’s Creative Services for designing our new logo which is modeled after UMBC’s very own Wye Oak Tree.

Rebuilding Manhood is an 11-week group for students who identify as men to explore manhood, masculinity, and other intersecting identities. 

Be a part of a student group seeking to create a new culture through discourse. 
Develop meaningful connections with campus leaders. 
Make a different at UMBC and in society at large. 

Applications can be completed by visiting: http://www.umbc.edu/womenscenter/rebuildingManhood.html

Applications are due Wednesday, Feb 5, 2014. 
(Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis, so don't wait until 2/5 to turn in your application!)

Meetings will take place on Fridays at 2pm in the Women's Center beginning Friday, Feb 7, 2014. (The group does not meet during spring break) 

For more information, contact the Women's Center at womens.center@umbc.edu.

Every January, we as a community acknowledge the need for awareness and education related to stalking. While we often joke about "facebook stalking," the fact is that stalking isn't a joke and can be a very scary experience for victims and their families and friends. Please read the proclamation below for more information.

Additionally, be sure to check out UMBC's Relationship Violence Awareness and Prevention website for more information on stalking and other forms of interpersonal violence: www.umbc.edu/rvap or http://umbc.edu/rvap/stalking/ for the direct link to stalking information.

If you need support from campus members related to a stalking incident, please contact a member from the SARVRT team (contact information can be found on the RVAP website).  

For more information from the Stalking Resource Center: http://victimsofcrime.org/our-programs/stalking-resource-center

Presidential Proclamation -- National Stalking Awareness Month, 2014

NATIONAL STALKING AWARENESS MONTH, 2014

- - - - - - -

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Each January, we draw attention to a crime that will affect 1 in 6 American women at some point in their lives. Although young women are disproportionately at risk, anyone can be a victim of stalking -- regardless of age, sex, background, or gender identity. While many victims are stalked by ex-partners, sometimes the perpetrators are acquaintances or even strangers. During National Stalking Awareness Month, we extend our support to victims and renew our commitment to holding their stalkers accountable.

Stalkers seek to intimidate their victims through repeated unwanted contact, including harassing phone calls, text messages, or emails. Cyberstalking is increasingly prevalent, with more than one quarter of stalking victims reporting being harassed through the Internet or electronically monitored. Many victims suffer from anxiety, depression, and insomnia, and some are forced to move or change jobs. Stalking all too often goes unreported, yet it also tends to escalate over time, putting victims at risk of sexual assault, physical abuse, or homicide.

My Administration remains dedicated to pursuing justice for victims of stalking and ensuring survivors receive the support they need. Last March, I was proud to sign the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. Every time we renew this landmark legislation, we improve it, and this time was no exception. This renewal expanded protections for Native American and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of stalking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. It amended the Clery Act to require colleges to report crime statistics on stalking, continued to allow relief for immigrant victims, and strengthened support and training programs that have proven effective in helping law enforcement bring offenders to justice.

We also stand behind the tireless advocates who provide essential services to victims. Along with law enforcement, prosecutors, court personnel, and survivors, these devoted women and men are links in a chain that has made a difference -- one person, one family, one case at a time. This month, let us resolve to strengthen this chain, bring stalkers to justice, and give hope to everyone who has suffered from this crime.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2014 as National Stalking Awareness Month. I call upon all Americans to recognize the signs of stalking, acknowledge stalking as a serious crime, and urge those affected not to be afraid to speak out or ask for help. Let us also resolve to support victims and survivors, and to create communities that are secure and supportive for all Americans.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/31/presidential-proclamation-national-stalking-awareness-month-2014

A piece and call-to-action regarding the India Supreme Court's recent recriminalization of LGBTQH identity by Dr. Harjant Gill, assistant professor of anthropology at Towson University.

"In July of 2009, the Delhi High Court "read down" Section 377, the 153-year old sodomy laws instituted by the British, making sex between two consenting adults, regardless of their gender, legal. This was a monumental victory for the LGBTQH (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Hijra) communities in India, and their struggle for equal rights. Indians living abroad like myself, who have been working to promote visibility and acceptance of sexual minorities in South Asian communities in diaspora, welcomed and cheered the news. We felt an incredible sense of pride in our nation, and its judicial system that privileged human dignity and equal rights over political campaigns based on religious bigotry, intolerance, policing public morality and using fear to drum up support. Now the nation's highest court is trying to make us into criminals -- again..."

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