Women’s Rights are Human Rights

You all know that Hillary Clinton famously declared at the UN Conference on Women in Beijing that Women’s Rights are Human Rights—and now you can meet the woman, Charlotte Bunch, who brought that lesson home. She has inspired women around the world and provided continuing leadership training to bring sorely needed change.

Come meet Charlotte and Roxanna Carrillo Thursday, 5-6 in the Clocktower Lobby; then have dinner in the Courtyard Area, and hear Charlotte speak at 7:30 in the Auditorium.

Best known for her activism internationally and at the UN, where she spearheaded the drive for a coordinated office to work globally for women’s equity, Charlotte Bunch moved from being a youthful member of the student and civil rights movements to being president of the ecumenical University Christian Movement, affiliated with the World Student Christian Federation. While she was studying history and political science at Duke, she was already becoming an organizer around the world.

She was the first woman tenured Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. With the dynamic emergence of the Second Wave of Feminism, Charlotte came out; she became part of a famous collective in DC, whose home has recently been named a Historic Landmark.

In 1989,  Charlotte Bunch founded the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University.  CWGL lobbied the United Nations and the international community to view women’s rights as a human rights issue: The entity UN Women was established in 2010.

See more about Charlotte Bunch  here. Let’s welcome her and thank Tucker Farley for making this possible!

 

 

Collington in Bloom!

Alice Nicolson reports: This week we’ve gotten a welcome taste of spring at Collington. White snowdrops have been blooming in spots since Christmas but this week the later species is in full bloom in many gardens – check out the side garden of 4207. Crocuses – purple, blue, yellow and white – have popped up in many clusters – hyacinths in yellow and blue are opening near the 1000 entrance, and just down the perimeter road a bed of mixed varieties of daffodils is beginning. Huge golden trumpet daffies are making a show at 1218, and more will soon appear outside the Bird Room and in many other areas around campus.

One type of hellebHelleboresore, the “Christmas Rose”, has been blooming since December all over campus in whites, creams and beige – the bed near the Ivy Bar has a nice display of this and its cousin the “Lenten Rose” with clumps of red, purple, whites and dapples. Walk around the 1000s to see more. Look for primroses here and there and visit the 4000 cluster for other blooms just starting. Forsythias will soon make golden masses – a few flowers are already open. And finally, enjoy our newly planted earliest cherry variety, “Okame”, which is now blooming across from the clocktower, on the loading dock slope, and below the greenhouse (there is also a single tree by the roadside behind 1109). These trees have extended our cherry blossom season by about three weeks – the two other varieties on campus, Yoshono and Kwanza, will bloom in sequence in April into May. What a great time of year to walk around!

Women’s History Month begins

Getlein and BarnettResidents Jean Getlein and Jeanne Barnett remember how it was in the 60’s and 70’s, as they arrange the glass cases in the Clocktower with memorabilia ranging from books, T-shirts, an Admiral’s hat, and many buttons and banners. All this begins the celebration of Women’s History Month throughout March. Wednesday night, at 7:00 in the Auditorium, Tucker Farley will get discussions started with a description of how the women’s studies movement took hold in academe. The whole month’s agenda can be found here. Look for movies, trips to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, concerts, and a special “Know your neighbor” with Laurie Cobb. Finally we will welcome Charlotte Bunch, founder of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership.