Women and Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) Records
Scope and Contents
The Women and Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) records comprise four series which include subject files, audiovisual materials, administrative files, and print publications. Subject files and the administrative files are arranged alphabetically by title. The Audiovisual series includes sixty-five audio cassette tapes and two video cassette tapes arranged chronologically by year. Print publications include popular magazines (e.g. Working Woman), scholarly journals (e.g. NWSA Journal), small-run serials (e.g. On Campus with Women), and local press periodicals (e.g. The Waterfall: Connecticut NOW News). The collection includes materials ranging in date from the early 1960s to the mid-2000s.
Of interest are publications produced by the Trinity College Women’s Center, namely Feminist Scholarship Review, and the Trinity College Women’s Center Newsletter. In addition the collection contains course syllabi, bibliographies, papers or lectures authored by Trinity faculty, and a ‘zine produced by students for a class assignment. Also of note is a folder containing “working papers” on various topics published by the Wellesley College Women’s Center.
Dates
- Creation: 1968-2011
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the John M.K. Davis Reading Room of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College Library, Hartford, Connecticut. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws when using this collection.
This collection contains restricted material, please check the series and folder listings for additional information.
This collection contains audiovisual materials, which require at least two weeks’ advance notice prior to use. Items that cannot be used in the John M.K. Davis Reading Room of the Watkinson Library or are too fragile for researchers to handle, may require that a digital copy be made prior to use.
Conditions Governing Use
Digital surrogates may be provided to researchers, in accordance with the duplication policy of the Watkinson Library.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information (e.g. social security numbers) in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
Biographical / Historical
In 1972 a group of undergraduate women students formed the Trinity Women’s Organization (TWO) which was funded by the student government and had an office in the basement of Mather Hall. By 1977 students had successfully petitioned for space and funding for a Women’s Center, which officially opened in the fall of that year. The Center’s purpose was to serve the needs of faculty, administrative, and staff women, as well as students. The students formed a coordinating committee to work with the Center’s co-coordinators to plan the year’s activities and to help implement programming which included lectures, workshops, discussion panels, and films.
In 1984 the Center hired its first full-time coordinator and expanded both its programming and its purpose, which allowed the Center to become a more visible and integral part of the life of the College and of the Hartford area:
“The purpose of the Women’s Center at Trinity College is to educate members of the Trinity community about women’s and gender issues, to serve as a center of support for women, to be an advocate regarding women’s concerns on campus, to be a resource center for students and faculty, and to be a liaison to women’s groups in the community. The Center’s programs and the activities of the coordinator are directed toward women and men of the faculty, administration, staff, and student body. The Center is also concerned with taking advantage of the College’s urban setting by using the resources of the community and by fostering interaction between the diverse Hartford community and the Trinity student body.”
In the years that followed the Center maintained its active presence on campus and continued to expand upon or develop new programming for student groups, alumni, and faculty. In 2003 the Center formulated a new mission statement:
“The Women’s Center is a place of advocacy, support, and welcome for all members of the Trinity community. Through educational, social and cultural programming, it seeks to promote women’s self-determination and empowerment; awareness of women’s rights and issues; redress of gender inequities; understanding among women of different economic classes, cultural backgrounds, and sexual identities; and the creation of a campus environment conducive to respectful interaction between women and men.”
In 2006 the Women’s Center became the Women & Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) with the following mission statement, according to a promotional brochure:
"The Women & Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) is a place of advocacy, support, and welcome for all members of the Trinity community. Through educational, social, and cultural programming, it seeks to promote women’s self-determination and empowerment; awareness of women’s rights and issues; redress of gender inequities; understanding among diverse students and of the intersectional experiences of different economic classes, sexes, races, nationalities and ethnicities, ages, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and gender identities; promotion of anti-racism, anti-classism, and body positivity; the bridging of theory into practice and action; and, the creation of a campus environment conducive to respectful interaction between people of all genders and backgrounds."
Currently, the Center is part of the Trinity College office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and oversees six student organizations: Promoting Healthy Awareness of the Body (PHAB); Students Expecting Consent (SECS); Masculinity Project (MP); Big Sister/Little Sister Program; Women In Business (WIB); and Ignite. The Center also provides Title IX resources such as SART: The Sexual Assault Resource Team.
The WGRAC office is located on the second floor of Mather Hall behind the Washington Room and includes a Lounge and Library.
Leadership
September 1977 – Ann Leventhal and Judy Rohrer named co-coordinators
September 1978 – Leslie Wright named coordinator
Fall 1984 – Judith Branzburg named first full-time coordinator
1987 – Ann Menard named part-time assistant coordinator when Judith Branzburg became part-time affirmative action officer for Trinity
Fall 1989 – Pat Reville hired as part-time interim coordinator after Judith Branzburg resigned
January 1990 – Diane Martell hired as full-time coordinator
Fall 1998 – Laura Lockwood hired as director
2008 – funding received to hire a part-time assistant to the director
Extent
6 Cubic Feet (6 records center cartons of letter-size files) ; 1 box (16.25 in. x 13 in. x 10.5 in.) equals 1 cubic foot ("cubic foot" defined in SAA Dictionary)
.61 Cubic Feet (One flat box with 45 cassette tapes; and one flat box with 4 cassette tapes and 2 video cassette tapes) ; 1 flat box (15.25"L x 10.25"W x 3"H) equals .27 cubic feet; 1 flat box (17.25"L x 11.5"W x 3"H) equals .34 cubic feet (as defined by UNLV Archives Calculator)
Language of Materials
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
- License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged by material type. There are four series:
Series 1: Subject Files
Series 2: Lectures and Talks: Audiovisual recordings
Series 3: Administrative Files
Series 4: Printed Publications
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated by Laura Lockwood (Trinity College WGRAC Director 1998-present) in several installments between 2020 and 2022.
Bibliography
Statement on Inclusive Description
Folder titles were copied (largely verbatim) from those originally written by WGRAC staff. These creator-supplied folder titles may contain outdated or harmful language.
Processing Information
The collection has been fairly thoroughly processed to the folder level. Originally, textual files were somewhat in alphabetical order by subject/folder title, but not entirely perfect. Some disorder may have occurred in transport from the WGRAC offices to the Watkinson in 2020. Files pertaining to the PSCW were pulled from the subject files and separated as a distinct series.
All materials were rehoused in acid-free folders and boxes, and rusty fasteners removed. Newspapers and newsclippings were isolated with acid-free paper. Misfiled and loose items were placed in appropriate existing folders or in some cases a new folder was created. Multiple folders with the same title but containing one or two items were condensed into fewer folders.
Folders with the following titles "Bants: Workshop Review Survey," "Child Birth," "Parenting," "Self-Mutilation," "Race, sex, and self-evident truths: status of slave women during American Revolution," "Quotes by Women," and "Women in Islam" were found to be empty; the titles were not added to the folder inventory. Student papers found within subject folders were removed and returned to WGRAC. Other records containing personal identifying information were separated and restricted. The "Rape and Pornography" file contains explicit materials. Two folders--"Self-Defense for Women - Course Training Materials" and "Witches - Women's Spirituality Forum"--found within the subject folders were physically removed and placed with the "Administrative Files" series, as they contain materials related to administration of WGRAC. Registration slips with student PII within the "Self-Defense for Women - Course Training Materials" folder were removed and returned to WGRAC.
- Title
- Guide to the Women and Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Amy M. FitzGerald, processing archivist
- Date
- 2022-01-14
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Trinity College Archives Repository
Watkinson Library
300 Summit St.
Hartford CT 06106 USA