Empowering voices: the vital work of UIC’s WLRC

The UIC Women’s Leadership and Resource Center (WLRC) serves as a focal point for promoting gender equity, cultivating a sense of community, and educating the campus about the needs of women and nonbinary persons in higher education. Serving as a Center for Cultural Understanding and Social Change (CCUSC), the WLRC offers a variety of programs, services and advocacy projects to educate and support staff, faculty and students across the UIC campuses.

Having a center that formed the hub of community for women students, faculty and staff had been part of a larger feminist agenda on campus since the late 1970s. But it took UIC students’ protest actions against racial and sexual violence targeting Black women on campus in 1990 to shift the university administration’s focus to establishing the Office of Women’s Affairs (which later became WLRC) in 1991. At that time, the students were already talking about gender justice as part of the demand for racial justice; those demands led to the establishment of the campus’s violence prevention and survivor advocacy program, Campus Advocacy Network, which still stands today.

Connecting beyond campus, the WLRC works regularly with feminist and social justice organizations all over Chicago. The center brings the UIC community together with feminist organizers, activists and thinkers by organizing events such as the panel discussion “Making Spaces: Lesbians Imagining and Building Community in Chicago” and the collaborative ARTivism workshop with the UIC Latino Cultural Center which featured the Pilsen Latina Legacies monuments project.

One of WLRC’s major achievements has been raising awareness of the needs of pregnant and parenting students at UIC. “We have met with student parents, who shared their experiences, successes, challenges and needs and presented their recommendations to UIC administrators, faculty and staff. Our team authored a policy brief and report, “Navigating UIC as a Student-Parent,”” explained Kelly Birch Maginot, PhD, assistant director of advocacy services. The initiative has not only highlighted the difficulties endured by pregnant and parenting students but has also given essential resources and support through events and their extensive website.

Another resource of the WLRC—the Campus Advocacy Network (CAN)—is essential to combating gender-based violence on and off campus. “CAN advocates for survivors of gender-based violence (domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, harassment, stalking and family abuse) who are disproportionately women or nonbinary folks. We hold workshops and programs so that UIC students, faculty and staff understand how to support survivors and prevent violence,” Maginot added. By taking these steps, the WLRC hopes to make the campus a more secure and compassionate place for survivors.

In the future, one of CAN’s objectives is to grow HEALS: Healing for Engagement, Action and Leadership by Survivors, an affinity group for students who have experienced gender-based violence. “HEALS offers a place where student survivors may come together, recover and pursue social justice. I’m excited for the HEALS group to grow and meet regularly this year,” shared Maginot.

A tuition grant for women undergraduate students is another popular WLRC program, offering essential financial assistance to individuals seeking help with needs that cannot be met by loans or financial aid.

Additionally, the PERSIST(Σ): Women and Non-binary People of Color in Engineering initiative has had a significant influence in recent years. PERSIST(Σ) is hosted by the Equity & Inclusion in Engineering Program (EIEP) in the UIC College of Engineering, in partnership with the WLRC, and organizes roundtable talks, networking events and “Sense of Belonging” socials. These events allow students to develop relationships, look after themselves and their community and promote change.

In service of educating about and defending reproductive justice, the WLRC has facilitated several talks, seminars and panel discussions over the last two years that have brought together academics, medical professionals, midwives, attorneys, activists and artists. Events such as “Abortion Futures? Unpacking Access and Reproductive Justice in Illinois” and “Black Women and Reproductive Justice: Abortion and Life in the Post-Roe Era” have been particularly notable.

“We also hosted “Reproductive Freedom for All!” artmaking events on campus where local artists and community members screen-printed designs on shirts, posters and tote bags to visualize support for reproductive justice,” Maginot noted.

Fostering healthy communities is a foundational aspect of the WLRC’s goals. The center tackles well-being as more than just individual habits of self-care, highlighting the importance of working to transform communities to reduce harm and develop authentic wellness.

“A lot of our programming focuses on caring for ourselves and others, whether we are hosting artmaking spaces, affinity groups or study breaks during finals. We talk about how we care for ourselves and our communities, why it’s so important to do so, and we share resources and strategies for wellness,” Maginot explained.

While advancing social justice and gender equity both on and off campus, the WLRC continues to serve as a pillar of strength, community and advocacy for all women-identified persons at UIC.

Involvement with the WLRC is open to faculty, staff and students. You can sign up for their weekly newsletters, follow them on social media and/or attend events and programs. The WLRC is housed at 1200 W. Harrison Street in the Student Services Building (SSB) in suite 1700 and welcomes visitors Monday through Friday from 10am – 4pm.

For individuals considering connecting with a CAN advocate, resources can be found via phone (312-413-8206), text, email (can-appointment@uic.edu) and online forms.