<p>Dear Penn boards,</p>
<p>Why is that there is a “Penn’s Women’s Center” and no “Penn’s Men Center” or “Penn’s Humanism Center”?</p>
<p>(I am not saying there should not be a Women’s center nor am I suggesting that issues that concern women particularly are trivial)</p>
<p>A lot of other colleges have women’s centers as well. What seems distinct about Penn’s Women’s Center is that there are plenty of things that guys participate in within the Women’s Center.</p>
<p>At Penn, there are centers for minorities and for women because males aren’t included in the Civil Rights Act.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’m as conservative as they come and think some – no, most – of the affirmative action stuff is ridiculous, but the Women’s Center is a valuable resource on campus. Their most visible contributions on campus relate to the safety of women around the campus. Penn isn’t immune to abuse of women, especially when alcohol is involved, and the Women’s Center works actively to help curtail this by helping give information to the campus about different ways to prevent abuse and address past abuse. </p>
<p>Of course, the Women’s Center does a TON of other things (you can rent tables from them for free!), but that’s the most visible in my eyes.</p>
<p>The frank reason why there is no “Men’s Center” is that it is not necessary. Don’t forget that men are much more proud, so when they have issues, as sad as it is, they don’t generally want to go for help beyond their friends or MAYBE a counselor. A Men’s Center would kinda be a waste when you look at the demand from women compared to the demand from men as an aggregate. </p>
<p>Check out their website to get a feel for the things that they do, and you’ll see the value in the center.</p>
<p>There are hubs for just about every group at Penn. That includes the more typical “minorities” in the LGBT, female, etc communities as well as groups such as the Irish, Catholics, Jews, Italians, men-against-violence-against-women, etc. There’s everything!</p>
<p>Also, they exist just like every other campus organization – they are run independently but with some financial backing from the university. With enough interest, you could apply to the Student Activities Council (SAC) for funding for just about anything, including a Men’s Center, if you think it could be a useful resource on campus.</p>
<p>to the Penn Women’s Center’s credit, they actually hosted a screening of the Evan Coyne Maloney documentary on ludicrous leftism permeating the contemporary academy. While they certainly didn’t agree with it, I think the very fact that they were willing to show it makes them one of the better such centers out there.</p>