I worked with a small collection of committed students during the 1995-96 school year to start the Women's Collective. At the time, it was a sort of revitalized throwback to Barnard's Women's Co-op. This semester, spring 1997, marks out third semester on Barnard's campus and our most independent one yet.

When we first opened, the Collective really lived up to its name. Students from groups like LABIA, Take Back the Night, Barnard-Columbia Students"for Choice, Women in Politics, and others come together to care for the new space and participate in programming there. Our purpose was (and is) to maintain a space for student groups to meet and to serve as a sort of �nerve center� for campus feminist action. Starting the Collective felt, to me at least, like a truly broad-based community action. We needed a student space that was actually run by students, wher e any group could meet regardless of SGA or USO recognition. And that�s what we got. The Collective feels a lot more singular in purpose now: Maintain the space. Be �a place where feminism can happen.� Our programming is up this semester, but our mem bership is down. This isn�t so surprising (many clubs are hurting for members right now), but it is disconcerting. I ask myself, �What�s going on?� on a pretty regular basis. So what is going on? Why is every student leader I know having such a hard t ime keeping membership up, getting students to events, and maintaining some structural integrity for her organization? I think that there are a lot of answers to these questions�some are pretty coincidental, and others are more fundamental. On the coinc idental side, late spring is a terrible time of year to plan serious discussions about the nature of feminist action. We think to ourselves, �It�s gorgeous outside and I have tons of work to do; who cares?� But the fundamental problem that I keep coming back to really scares me: more often than not, we just aren�t working together. We are having so much trouble keeping it together from week to week (the Collective occasionally counts as few as three or four actively contributing members) but we really aren�t paying attention to the larger problem of self-isolation. Student leaders have a lot to share with one another, and our basic unwillingness to pool resources in times of crisis suggests not so much a clearly recognizable conflict of interest as a vague form of thoughtlessness (and, I suppose, a general exhaustion). One aspect of this problem is the way in which we take minimal effort to look around and see what our needs are, and how we can best meet them; instead, we watch each other flail at c ommunity-based programming, and we almost never attend one another�s events. I go to a lot of on-campus events, but there is simply no way to even skim the surface of what�s going on out there. I feel bad, because I can never offer enough support to oth er students, but my hands are usually tied. The situation wouldn�t be so problematic if there were enough interested students to fill the programs which are already being offered. But the pool of students who can or are willing to go to club-sponsored p rogramming seems to get smaller and smaller these days. And with all these options, it is easier than ever to throw up your hands and say, �Forget it�I�m going home.� My sense is that many students would be interested in going to programs more regularly , but aren�t interested in getting roped into clubs. The question becomes one of how to foster a community dialogue without over-bureaucritization. If we can pool our resources to produce half the programming, we can double our publicity efforts and enc ourage a real u I !� s Dialogue,� about the relationship between Barnard and Columbia women. It was a successful event, but by the end of the program we sat in a sort of stunned silence because it was overwhelmingly clear that�in terms of our various feminist organizations�w e just don�t talk to each other enough. I do get discouraged about our over-programmed and under-attended events pretty regularly. I also get discouraged because it feels like many of us who are putting so much effort into these programs and organizatio ns are trying to build a community out of thin air. But I don�t think that this means that we are all working to no end�there is a viable community out there, and there is a dialogue just waiting to take off. It�s our job to figure out how to access it, and how to make that community dialogue really come alive. To that end, here are a couple of suggestions: � I really believe that it�s in our best interests to talk to one another more often. Some of the best things that have happened this year in the feminist/co-curricular community this year have come out of discussions started at events various groups have co-sponsored or at the Women�s Coalition brunches. The Women�s Coalition e-mail list is brilliant. Groups should meet together on a regular ba sis and program together regularly. � Program less, publicize more. If we reduce the sheer number of programs and increase the creative publicity for each program, I suspect, we can program for bigger audiences and (consequently) plan better events. No t that lots of the small stuff happening on campus isn�t first-rate, but often the small-scale events only draw a group of sympathetic club leaders. So many students don�t listen to a bit of their phone mail if it�s not from friends, and the campuses are papered so much that many people consciously avoid paying attention to flyers. � Publicize on both campuses. � Support other groups by attending their events. I don�t go to enough. No one does. But we can try. � Use the Women�s Collective. The bea uty of the Women�s Collective is that a lot of people have access to the space, and so it is highly trafficked. It should be more so. Over the past couple of months we have joked that our slogan should be, �We leave the light on,� but I think there is a n element of truth to that. Groups don�t have to be recognized by any official body to meet in the space, and no one has to go through any red tape to use it. I want it to be a �nerve center� for campus and citywide feminist networks, and because it rea lly is a student space, it can be. Especially while the Columbia College Women�s Center is without a permanent home, the Women�s Collective has a really vital role in the University feminist community.

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