TABLE OF CONTENTS Collection Summary Administrative History of the UTA Women's Center Scope and Contents of the Records Organization of the Records Arrangement of the Records Restrictions Related Material Administrative Information   Container List Series I: General Files, 1974-1989, bulk 1974-1984 Series II: Subject Files 1974-1984, 1986-1987 Series III: WomanFair 1980 Series IV: Oversize Materials

University of Texas at Arlington Women's Center Records Web page created from EAD Finding Aid by Benna M. Ball Collection Summary Creator: UTA Women's Center Title: UTA Women's Center Records Dates: 1974-1989, bulk 1974-1984 Abstract: The UTA Women's Center, comprised of three administratively separate organizations--the Center for Women's Studies sanctioned in 1974, the Women's Center, and the Displaced Homemakers Center established in 1978--was set up to meet the needs of women and to increase the awareness of women's issues on the UTA campus and in the surrounding community. During its operation, the UTA Women's Center was responsible for meeting the needs of women throught its participation in the National Women's Studies Association, the South Central Women's Studies Association, and the Women's Information and Service Exchange, as well as offering continuing education courses, seminars, counseling, training, and job placement services. Though the Women's Center and the Displaced Homemakers Center closed in 1979, the Center for Women's Studies continued to offer women help and support. The Second Annual Convention for the SCWSA, titled WomanFair was held at UTA and brought together women in all walks of life to engage them in women's issues and an awareness of women's roles in society. The ensuing years have seen the Women's Studies Program at UTA continue to strive to meet and address issues that are important to women.The records include budgets, correspondence, grant information, mailing lists, course offerings, affirmative action items, articles, information on battered women's shelters and divorce support groups, conference and symposuim materials. and WomanFair conference materials, including proposals, exhibits, photographs, original scripts and artwork, poetry, and information about participants of WomanFair. These records also include a scrapbook for the Women's Center with photographs and news articles, and a set of seven posters that chronicle the Women's Center's continued sponorship of the Women's History Month Lecture Series. Quantity: 4.84 linear feet Identification: AR-426 Administrative History of the UTA Women's Center The Univeristy of Texas at Arlington has traditionally offered unique opportunities for women's interests and needs. The Center for Women's Studies was sanctioned by the University in 1974, and was set up as a multi-purpose center providing services such as offering noncredit courses in coordination with the Office of Continuing Education, as well as seminars, workshops, referral services, and educational and employment counseling. The UTA Women's Center evolved from the Center for Women's Studies and continued to help and support women in educational, professional, and personal efforts. Just as the Women's Center evolved from the Center for Women's Studies, also the Displaced Homemakers Center evolved from the Women's Center. In January of 1978, the Displaced Homemakers Center was established with the aid of a grant, which allowed the Center to provide counseling, training, and job placement services for those who qualified. These three organizations, collaboratively intertwined though administratively separate, came to be know collectively as the UTA Women's Center.During its operation, the UTA Women's Center was responsible for many advancement opportunities for women. Not only was the Women's Center a founding member of the National Women's Studies Association, but also was responsible for helping to found the South Central Women's Studies Association, a regional branch of the NWSA. Jeanne Ford, the director of the Women's Center from 1974-1979, was also responsible for helping found W. I. S. E. (the Women's Information and Service Exchange),which functioned among seventeen colleges and universities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplexto aid in the exchange of information and services available to women. On August 31, 1979, UTA closed the Women's Center and the Displaced Homemakers Center. The reason cited was duplication of services with other state, local, and university organizations and, most importantly, lack of funds. Though the Women's Center and Displaced Homemakers Center closed, the Center for Women's STudies continued to function as it had before in providing services for women. Jeanne Ford also continued as director of the Center for Women's Studies. Conferences, lectures, and coures in conjunction with the Continuing Education Department continued to reach women and support some of their needs. In late 1979 and early 1980, the Center for Women's Studies was awarded a grant from the Texas Committee for the Humanities to fund, in part, the second national convention of the SCWSA. This convention became known as WomanFair.WomanFair brought together women from all aspects of lije in an effort to meet, address, and engage these women in thought and awareness of women's issues and women's place in society. Considered a success by the sponsors and most of the participants, WomanFair used panels, workshops, lectures, Readers Theater, poetry, art exhibits, performing exhibits, and publishing exhibits to bring the mail issues vital to women to the attention of those who attended. In the ensuing years, the Center for Women's Studies continued to support and maintain a multidisciplinary approach to the areas of women's interests. The Center continued to sponsor conferences such as the Women's Awareness Seminars and workshops for women. Jeanne Fordresigned as director of the Center for Women's STudies in 1983, and was replaced as director by Sheila Collins, then Social Work Dean for UTA. Continuing in a spirit of evolution, the Center for Women's Studies merged with the Women and Work Research and Resource Center, active since 1985, to form theWomen and Minority Research and Resource Center under the directorship of Kathleen Underwood. The WWRRC co-sponsored the annual "Woman and Work" conferences for seven years, as well as a "Texas Women Mayor's Conference" in 1992. In 1991, a separate Women's Studies Program was established at UTA offering an undergraduate minor in Women's Studies and is currently under the direction of Dr. Beth Anne Shelton.Continuing the legacy of the original Center for Women's Studies, the programs for women available at UTA still strive to bring women's issues to the awareness of the community and help women to gain their place in that community. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and Contents of the Records The UTA Women's Center recores are contained in eleven manuscript boxes, one oversize box, and one oversize drawer located in the Jenkins Garrett Library. The records total 4.84 linear feet and consist of four series. The records range from 1974 to 1989, with the bulk of the material spanning the years 1974 to 1984. Anyone interested in feminism, women's history, or the women's movement during the 1970's and 1980's will find this collection interesting. It contains materials that demonstrate the commitment and struggle women in academe made to further women's causes and to make women's issues more of a priority in the academic arena. Of particular interest will be Series III, WomanFair. The director of WomanFair, Jeanne Ford, made a great effort to attract women from all over the United States who were in positions of leadership and respect to participate in WomanFair. The artworks shown in the collection, the poetry and play scripts, and the promotional materials for the different proposals and participants are good representations of women who considered themselves to be activists in the area of promoting women's issues. The program booklet and proposals in this series give a good overall view of what and who was important in the women's movement during early1980's, and what women themselves were interested in. Return to the Table of Contents Organization of the Records These records are organized into four series: The first series, General Files: 1974-1989, bulk 1974-1984,consists of general operating files used in the course of the running of the Women's Center. Contained in this series are budgeting items and correspondence fro the Women's Center, the National Women's Studies Association, and the South Central Women's Studies Association. Also included is grant information, mailing lists, newsletters for the Women's Center, the NWSA, and the SCWSA, national conference information, news articles, childcare center information, W. I. S. E. informaion, advisory committee meeting minutes and women's studies course offerings. The UTA Women's Center was a member of both the NWSA and the SCWSA. Jeanne Ford, who was director of the Women's Center from its inception in 1974 until it was closed in August 1979, and director of the Center for Women's Studies from 1979 to her resignation in 1983, was a member of prominent committees for both the NWSA and the SCWSA. Therefore, the arrangement for the correspondence files of the Women's Center, the NWSA, and the SCWSA are different. Correspondence for the Women's Center is arranged into a Correspondence Received folder, which is arranged aphabetically by sender and then Correspondence Sent folders for the different years, arranged chronologically. The Wome's Center only received correspondence from the NWSA, so the NWSA Correspondence Received folders are arranged alphabetically. In regards to SCWSA correspondence, the SCWSA Correspondence Received folders are arranged chronologically and the one SCWSA Correspondence Sent folder is also arranged chronologically because it only contains about ten items. The materials from the NWSA and the SCWSA contain many flyers and announcements regarding events of the two organizations and arranging them alphabetically by sender would have been problematic. The researcher should have no problem navigating the correspondence folders if this arrangement is kept in mind. In the second series of the records, Subject Files: 1974-1984, 1986-1987, different subjects of interest to women are found. This series contains information on affirmative action issues, including issues that involved UTA and copies of the Affirmative Action Register.Different articles on women's issues by authors Morgan McFarland and Meryl C. Friedman are also included. In this series, information about Battered Women's Shelters, Divorce Support Groups, and National Female Advocacy Programs are also included as well as information on different women's seminars and conferences. The third series of the collection, WomanFair 1980, contains material regarding the convention that was held at UTA in 1980. WomanFair was the second annual convention for the SCWSA and was partially funded by a grant from the Texas Committee for the Humanities. In this series, general correspondence as well as correspondence to and from participants, moderators, panelists, steering committees, and speakers are available. This series also contains information on exhibits at WomanFair in the areas of film, publishers, and non-profit organizations. Proposals for WomanFair are also included in this series under the different topic headings that WomanFair was divided into: Bearing and Caring, Getting and Spending, Healing and Helping, Majority and Minority Women, Pioneer's Then and Now, and Silver Threads and Golden Notebooks. Included in these proposals are copies of artwork that was presented at WomanFair and original scripts and poetry for different performing arts exhibits and events. There are also photographs of the WomanFair and some of the participants and performers in the series. Three reels of audiotape are also included in this series which were taped from the UTA Today show and in which guest speakers talked on the subject of WomanFair or women's issues that were to be featured at WomanFair. The arrangement of this series also needs explanation in that the Women's Center staff filed all their correspondence, to and from the specific person or organization, together in the same file. Therefore, that order has been maintained in arranging this series of the records. The researcher will find correspondence to a specific party and the response from that party filed behind each other in a chronological manner and not in separate Sent/Received folders. These "groups" of correspondence are divided from the other materials in the folder by large sheets of acid-free paper. Please keep this arrangement in mind, and these records in order, when researching the folders in this series. In the fourth series of the records, Oversize Material, a scrapbook and posters are located. The scrapbook, found in one oversize box, consists maily of photographs and newspaper clippings centered on the Women's Center and its activities. The years 1975 and 1976 are very well documented with clippings. Different women's issues of interest were also cut out of the newspaper and included in the scrapbook, as well as a few samples of courses offered that were of interest to women.The posters in Series IV are located in the Jenkins Garret Library in one oversize drawer and consist of posters of differing sizes that advertised the Women's History Month Lecture Series. Taking place in April, these posters give the topic of the lecture series, the time and date of each lecture, the speaker and speaker's affiliation, and the different sponsors for the lecture series. The Center for Women's Studies was one sponsor for these lectures and often other campus organizations as well as community organizations would help sponsor the lectures. Two of these posters are not dated with a year, but they do give the month of the lectures as March. Return to the Table of Contents Arrangement of the Records These records were received by Special Collections in a somewhat disheveled order, and the processor did have to impose some order on the records. Where possible, the original order was maintained as closely as could be ascertained. Therefore, the researcher is asked to pay particular attention to the arrangement notes of the different series described in the organization section of this finding aid. Return to the Table of Contents Restrictions Literary Rights Statement Permission to publish, copy, reprint, digitize, orally record for transmission over public or private airways, or use in any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures, must be obtained in writing from the Special Collections Division of the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards. Return to the Table of Contents Related Material UTA Special Collections had received and processed a previous accession from the Women's Center, Collection 337, Accession 91-57, which consists of materials from some of the same years and may also be of interest to the researcher. Return to the Table of Contents Administrative Information Preferred Citation UTA Women's Center Records, AR-426, Box number, Folder number, Special Collections Division, The Univeristy of Texas at Arlington Libraries Provenance Statement The UTA Women's Center Records were acquired by the University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections Division on June 10, 1997, and were donated by Beth Anne Shelton, Director of the Women's Studies Program, with the exception of Series III of this collection, WomanFair 1980, which was acquired in another accession from the Women's Center on September 4, 1991. It was decided at that time of this first accession (1991) that the WomanFair records would be processed along with the later 1997 accession. Materials Removed List All duplicate letters, copies, and government publications have been removed and discarded. In addition, catalogs, brochures, and notes not germain or of historical importance have also been removed. Return to the Table of Contents Container List   Series I: General Files, 1974-1989, bulk 1974-1984 2.28 linear feet. (158 folders) Arranged alphabetically by document type and then chronologically within the folder. Materials include budgeting, general correspondence, grant information, mailing lists, NWSA correspondence, SCWSA correspondence, unversity childcare information, W. I. S. E. information, goals and objectives, and Women's Studies course offerings. Assisted from Women's Center, February 24, 1978-May 25, 1979; n.d. Contains handwritten notes, inquiries, and phone messages of people seeking assistance from the Women's Center. One item not dated. Budget, March 10, 1974-August 20, 1975 Contains memos and budget requests for fiscal year September 1974-August 1975. Budget, January 19, 1975-July 28, 1976; c.1975-1976 Contains memos and budget requests for fiscal year September 1975-August 1976. Budget, September 16, 1976-August 17, 1977; c.1976-1977; c.1977; n.d. Contains memos, budget requests, and estimated expenses for Women in the Arts Festival for fiscal year September 1976-August 1977. Budget, September 1, 1977-February 18, 1978; c.1977-1978; c.1978; n.d. Contains memos, budget estimates, requests, and handwritten budgeting notes for fiscal year September 1977-August 1978. Two items not dated. Budget, September 1, 1978 Contains budget request for fiscal year September 1978-August 1979. Budget, 1982-1983 Contains budget request for fiscal year September 1982-August 1983. Center for Women's Studies Goals and Objectives Statement, December 10, 1982; c.1982-1983 Contains correspondence, outline of Women's Studies program, and a goals and objectives statement. Center for Women's Studies Newsletter, n.d. Contains the first newsletter for the Center, not dated. Closing of Women's Center, June 21, 1979 Contains correspondence and news articles. The Women's Center and Displaced Homemaker's Center closed on August 31, 1979. Correspondence Received, October 24, 1974-April 19, 1984 Contains general correspondence, memos, handwritten notes, and a postcard. Correspondence Sent, 1974 Contains general correspondence and handwritten notes. Correspondence Sent, 1978 Contains an invitation to a Holiday Open House sponsored by the Center for Women's Studies, the Women's Center, and the Displaced Homemaker's Center, on December 20, 1978. Correspondence Sent, 1979 Contains general correspondence. Correspondence Sent, 1980 Contains general correspondence including a letter of resignation for Robin Pope - Sturgis as Director of Ethnic and Intercultural Relations at UTA. Correspondence Sent, 1981 Contains general correspondence. Correspondence Sent, 1982 Contains general correspondence and memoranda. Correspondence Sent, 1983 Contains general correspondence and memoranda. Correspondence Sent, 1984 Contains general correspondence. Correspondence Undated, 5 items. Contains general correspondence, memoranda, and one budgeting item. F.I.P.S.E. Grant Application - C.A.C.T.I.P., February 6, 1987 Contains a copy of grant proposal and grant guidelines. Ford Foundation/ NEH Grant Proposal, 1981; January 29, 1988-September 15, 1988; n.d. Contains correspondence, grant proposal and proposal guidelines, and a copy of Black English and the Education of Children and Youth: The Proceedings of the National Invitation Symposium on the King Decision, at Wayne State University, February 21-23, 1980. One item not dated. Funding from Campus Departments, October 10, 1983-November 2, 1983; c.1983 Contains handwritten correspondence and contribution letters to the Center for Women's Studies by University departments. Grant Information: Texas, 1974-1977 Contains correspondence and guidelines for grants, grant information, and pamphlets. Indian Women's Center of Dallas Project, November 18, 1982-May 1983; n.d. Contains a copy of application information relating to Native American Women and general correspondence. Also includes a copy of "Indian Women: Most Vulnerable to Poverty," by Owanah Anderson, Director/Founder of Ohoyo Research Center. The article is not dated. Jeanne Ford's Resignation, February 21, 1983-February 28, 1983 Contains correspondence and news articles about Jeanne Ford's resignation. Letters of Support, February 6, 1979-May 18, 1979 Contains general letters of support for the Women's Center. Mailing List: Arkansas Organizations and Individuals, c.January 1980 Contains mailing list sent by Barbara Taylor. Mailing List: Arlington A.A.U.W., February 1980; n.d. Mailing List: Arlington N.O.W., June, 1979 Mailing List: Austin Organizations and Individuals, February 26, 1980 Mailing List: Association of Girl Scouts Executive Staff, Region VI, c.October 1979 Mailing List: Center for Women's Studies Master List, October 21, 1982 Mailing List: Chicano and Hispanic List, Nationwide, November 14, 1979 Contains mailing list to Marilyn? from unknown sender. Mailing List: Colleges and Universities in SCWSA Region, c.August 1979 Mailing List: Commissions on the Status of Women-Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, c.October 1979 Mailing List: Dallas Black Organizations, c.March 1980 Mailing List: Dallas Clubs and Organizations, c.February 1980 Contains list compiled from the Dallas Public Library computer list. Mailing List: Dallas Council on World Affairs: 1975-1976 Board of Directors, c.1975 Mailing List: Dallas Inter-Tribal Center, c.February 1980 Mailing List: Dallas Women's Coalition, August 1977 Contains mailing list taken from the 1977 Dallas Women's Coalition list. Mailing List: Department of Labor-Women's Bureau, February 6, 1980 Contains mailing list and cover letter. Mailing List: Directory of Services for Battered Women-Dallas, n.d. Contains marked booklet used for mailing list, not dated. Mailing List: Executive Directors of Education Service Centers in Texas, March 13, 1980 Mailing List: Family Violence Programs of Texas, c.August 1979 Mailing List: Farmer's Branch Women's Club, c.February 1980 Mailing List: Federal Organizations that Address Women's Issues, c.February 1980 Mailing List: Fort Worth Black Community Leaders, February 14, 1980 Return to the Table of Contents Mailing List: Fort Worth Hispanic Organizations and Centers, n.d. Mailing List: Fort Worth Mayor's Council on the Status of Women Committee, 1975-1979, c.1975 Mailing List: Fort Worth Women's Organizations and Services, 1979 Contains mailing list taken from A Directory of Women's Organizations and Services, produced by the Fort Worth Women's Center. Mailing List: Four-Year Institutions in Texas, n.d. Mailing List: Irving Chamber of Commerce-Women's Division, c.February 1980 Contains list taken from the 1977 Women's Division Roster of the Irving Chamber of Commerce. Mailing List: Irving Clubs and Organizations, c.February 1980 Contains list taken from the 1977 Women's Directory of Irving Clubs and Organizations. Mailing List: Licensed Day Care Centers-Dallas County, 1976 Mailing List: Licensed Day Care Centers-Tarrant County, August 1974; February 1975; May 1976; August 1976; March 1977 Mailing List: Louisiana AFL-CIO, n.d. Contains list from AFL-CIO Sub-Regional Office, not dated. Mailing List: Louisiana Commissions on the Needs of Women Directory, October 1979 Contains list taken from the 1979 Directory prepared by the Bureau of Women, Office of Management and Finance, and the Department of Health and Human Resources, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mailing List: Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources, c.February 1980 Contains list taken from printed sheet from the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources, not dated. Mailing List: Louisiana State Department of Education, c.1980 Contains list from December 1978 listing of the State Department of Education in Louisiana. Mailing List: Louisiana Women's Organizations-Presidents, 1980 Mailing List: MLA Convention-1979: Chicano, Hispanic, Luso-Brazilian List, December 28, 1979 Contains list sent from Liz Ordonez. Mailing List: McFarland YWCA-Oklahoma City, c.February 1980 Mailing List: Media Resources for Norman and Oklahoma City, c.September 1979 Mailing List: Mexican-American Cultural Center-Oklahoma City, c.February 1980 Mailing List: Miscellaneous Oklahoma Organizations, c.April 17, 1980 Contains list sent from Kristen at the University of Oklahoma.