As of October 9, 2009, the Women’s Resource Center was officially named the Kate Shelley Women’s Resource Center, the feminist theme house on campus.

Despite general beliefs, we are not radicals, and no, we do not hate men. In reality, we are just eight everyday women who have taken an interest in creating awareness about women’s issues across campus.

Being a part of the KSWRC is more than just learning to live with a group of seven other women. In fact, most of us would say we are here because we have a sincere passion for the objectives of the house.

Granted, we may all have our individual ideas and opinions, but together, we really do have the ability to make a difference.

That’s what makes living here so appealing? Knowing that we don’t have to give it a go all on our own. There really are others out there willing to help and accept you for who you are.

We believe awareness of women’s issues on a college campus is important because many people are not aware of the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses, and so the issue does not get addressed or discussed enough.

Additionally, we believe people have become too complacent about issues of women’s health and women’s rights, two issues that are nowhere near resolved in today’s society.

Currently, the KSWRC is in its third year of existence and has already accomplished many successful projects.

The first year the house hosted a Safe Sex Party to educate fellow students about having responsible, healthy relationships, but last year we worked at really getting our name out there to be recognized by other students.

Some of last year’s projects included an Ugly Sweater Party to promote a healthy body image, a Camp Out for a Cause to raise money for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and a forum event regarding the risks and benefits of the Gardisil vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.

We also encouraged our peers to stand up and share stories of brave women in their lives by hosting That Takes Ovaries. In addition, we created the first annual Women Impacting Simpson Calendar which will have a second edition released this year.

This semester, we’ve already had an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at the house.

We have a haunted house in the works scheduled for the end of this month and are planning a These Hands are not for Hitting party to promote nonviolence in relationships. We are working on planning several other projects for the spring semester as well.

We are also working on building a library of books, magazines, pamphlets and other information concerning women and women’s issues for the Simpson community to borrow, read and in some cases, take home with them.

We also have space available for group meetings at the house.

We feel that we have built an excellent foundation for future Simpson generations to build upon and provide a safe, laid-back environment for people to come with their questions and concerns or just to drop by to say “Hi.”