Though nothing is confirmed at the moment, it is looking as though with the help of Associate Provost Michael Reynolds and Dean of Students Alan Sickbert, who have always shown the Women’s Resource Center support, that the organization can begin to put some of their future plans into motion.

The compensated leadership positions that the WRC is looking to hire on are a new Director and a Graduate Assistant faculty member. These leaders would help run the WRC and take some pressure off of the current volunteers.

Faculty adviser Professor Kristin Mapel Bloomberg spoke on how over the years, she and the students have lobbied for funding.

Mapel Bloomberg went on to say that Associate Provost Reynolds recognized what an important resource the WRC is, and how crucial it is that it recieve support that’s been lacking. She said that she was “grateful for the leadership shown by Associate Provost Reynolds for supporting what needed to be done.”

For the time being, the WRC is run by Mapel Bloomberg and a team of volunteers and work-study students. According to student worker senior Emily Klehr, “We all have different responsibilities weekly and depending on the event we’re planning and want to be involved in. And volunteers can be as involved as they want.”

The WRC was established in 1983. According to their Facebook page, they focus on “women’s health, children and family, careers and internships, as well as to further education about current social topics relating to women.” They serve as a safe space and resource in order to educate Hamline about women’s contributions, as well as meeting the needs of the women on campus.

Student worker and sophomore Katie Jernigan spoke about the different responsibilities that the volunteers and work- study students have. The student workers plan out the details of booking spaces for events, setting budgets and carrying out educational services.

“We have a limited number of hours each week and we’re also busy students, which can make it hard to keep the WRC running at full speed,” she said. Jernigan also said that the volunteers help to generate ideas, coordinate events and projects with the student workers and donate their own time to keep the WRC open. “We could not run our operation without the volunteers,” she said.

Jernigan went on to add that without Mapel Bloomberg, the WRC would have closed down years ago.

Funding for staff would make it easier to run the events that the WRC provides for the university.

Currently the WRC is working on celebrating Women’s History Month. One of the events going on is the bra-drive. They collect bras and donate them to Free the Girls, a nonprofit organization. Jernigan added, “The bras are sent all over the world to help women who were rescued from sex trafficking by giving them enough inventory to start a micro-enterprise selling used bras.”

Jernigan spoke about the benefits of the donation, stating that it not only provides a safe source of income to the women involved, but it also helps educate the people who donate about the prevalence of sex trafficking. The bra-drive is now in its second year, but they hope to beat their donations from last year.

“Last year, we collected 250 new and used bras to donate, but I’m hoping that this year our numbers will be even higher,” said Jernigan.

Jernigan also spoke of hopes for a better location, stating that currently they do not get a lot of foot traffic in Drew Science 118A, and that it is a small space. “It might be a while until that happens, but the university is taking steps to make the WRC a more prominent and permanent institution on campus. Maybe one day in the distant future, the Women’s Resource Center will get its own building.”

With funding for staff members, the WRC hopes to grow and continue to impact the Hamline community. Though not all of their future plans will be fulfilled, a possible step forward would be worth all of the lobbying efforts.

“I think I love working at the Women’s Resource Center because I’m encouraging students to become aware of women’s issues,” Klehr said.