I am very slightly incensed.

One of the most frequent things that get complained about at BYU is the high standard. When I lived in singles' wards, it was quite a common occurence to hear some guy whining about not being able to take a test in the testing center because he didn't feel like shaving, or we hear stories about the girl with pink hair who was denied service by the library employees, or the girl whose female professor told her to change into a less revealing shirt (if a male professor had done it, she'd cry "harrassment"). All of these cases? covered in the HONOR CODE. You signed it when you came, so you have absolutely no right to complain.
But this particular action is a genuinely bad move for the University, as far as I know. You see, effective January 2010, the Women's Research Institute here on campus will be dissolved, the funding for the Institute will be given to individual research projects (mainly ORCA grants, which means science--not humanities--students) and the Women's Studies minor will now be under the jurisdiction of the School of Family Life. Excuse me while I go gag for a minute.
Not that I have anything against the good 'ole SFL. There are great things that happen there, like child development and psychology and family counseling. But as an English major who is familiar with the horrible things that have happened because of unjust inequality and classifying of the feminine ideal, not to mention as a self-proclaimed feminist, I cannot stand for the message that this sends.
You see, BYU has kind of a bad rep as far as gender equality. I mean, who hasn't heard the stereotype about girls coming to get their 'MRS' degree? Heck, I'm married. Doesn't that say something?
The Women's Research Institute was created to promote Gender Studies and equality, and to help give women - LDS women in particular - a voice in the world. I mean, I believe as much as the rest of the church that a wife and mother's place is in the home, but what about as a woman? She has just as much intellectual potential as any man, and the WRI wasn't studying how to be better wives and mothers. It was studying the place of woman in the world, trying to help her find it. That's history, political science, sociology--NOT family life.
The university keeps saying things like, "this will not diminish the strength of our women's studies program" and "we are trying to strengthen the program, not save money" but even without my feminist rantings, this is a horrible PR move. Scholars all over the country have noticed, and dissolving the WRI is particularly bad in a year when race and gender issues have been boiling back to the surface again. Probably just because they want to give the money to "useful" projects like my husband's research on Osteoarthritis. Not that they're not useful, but aren't we?
There's a meeting tonight of the gender equality club on campus, called "Parity," (at 7 in 270 SWKT if anybody in Provo is reading this!) and they're going to discuss respectful protests and petitions to take to the University. I would go, but maybe it would be more in accordance with the new Women's Studies program if I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Seriously.
Sorry this sounds so angry. I'm just a little bit upset. What they're doing doesn't sound to me like "strengthening the program." They're just creating more angry feminists.