Hoping to compete with graduates from other universities, several women's studies students have joined a movement to promote the program to department status.
Ball State senior women's studies and psychology major Kristin Marie Larson recently started a Facebook group called "Make Women's Studies a Department!!" with the hope of drawing awareness to the cause.
"Women's studies doesn't have the funds to really do anything or bring attention to itself, to draw in more students," Larson said.
She would like to use the Facebook group to educate people about women's studies and feminism, she said.
Diann Maurer, a women's studies graduate, agreed.
"I think the importance of making this program a department lies in our ability to educate and serve not just women, but the entire campus, on women's issues," Maurer, a member of the 2009 Women's Week committee, said.
Michael Maggiotto, dean of the College of Science and Humanities, said the college was looking into several issues concerning the women's studies program. He declined to comment further, saying any such comment would be "premature."
Larson said she spoke with people in the provost's office, who told her the issue was important but they wouldn't do anything about it in the near future.
"I think they're just messing around with us," she added. "Their reason for not doing anything is the retirement of our director, but she's been retired for at least a year."
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting a department created is precedence. Provost Terry King said interdisciplinary programs, such as women's studies, generally do not become departments.
Adam McLachlan, women's studies program administrative coordinator, said about 80 students are either majoring or minoring in the program.
"A lot of people are wanting us to [become a department]," McLachlan said. "But there are a lot of things that are out of our control."
Larson's aim to draw attention to the program is echoed by the 393 other students in the Facebook group, as well as students like R.C. Duffy, a junior landscape architecture major and women's studies minor.
"For any program that you can possibly get a major degree in, to be of any value to companies, they often look at the accreditation process," Duffy said. "And if they look at our university and the people who are graduating with women's studies majors, and they see it's not even a department and they don't really have a staff, it seems like more of a joke."
Other students see the lack of women's studies classes with varying topics as a problem. The program has nine courses. Two of those are internships for credit, and another course is independent study.
The rest of the classes that fulfill major or minor requirements are in other areas, such as sociology, English and political science.
Continuing education is important for many of these students, such as Susan Cupka-Head, a senior women's studies major.
"For many of us who hope to continue in academia within the study of gender, [we] must have more options in our coursework so that we may be prepared," Cupka-Head said.
If women's studies students want to get a master's degree or a Ph.D., they have to go to a different university because Ball State doesn't offer post-graduate courses.
"I would like for us to be able to have a graduate studies program as well," Larson said. "A lot of schools have them for women's studies, but we've just got a major, so unless we become a department and we have the funds, it's not going to happen."
The women's studies program began December 1980, when the minor in women's studies was approved. In 2004, a major in women's studies was accepted.
Larson acknowledges the obstacles to creating a women's studies department versus a program. For starters, many misconceptions exist about feminism, and many students outside the program already believe that women's studies is a department.
The lack of facilities and faculty are also concerns for the students. The program has six faculty members, including adjunct faculty, this semester.
"[The professors] are all part-time, and we only have, I think, one designated room for our use," Larson said. "We only have one office, we don't even have a building or anything ... It would definitely be beneficial to have full-time staff members and more equipment and stuff for us to use."
Another issue is finding funding for more faculty and support for the students' idea.
"Women's studies is an interdepartmental discipline, but why should these types of study receive any less means that will aid in the creation of new ideas and inventive people?" Cupka-Head said.
The students said they would like to be able to compete for jobs against women's studies graduates from universities that have women's or gender studies departments.
"No matter how much work the students have done and how much they have learned, their work is devalued because this is a program and not a department," Duffy said. "It really hinders their ability to get a job."
Maurer said many of those who would like to see the change seek a sense of equality from the university.
"If half of the population of the university is female, but we don't have a Women's Center and... if we don't have departmental status, I think that it means that, you know, 50 percent of the students here are being trivialized," she said. "But you don't have to be a woman to take women's studies."
Women's studies students said they will continue to push the idea of a department while working to educate the university population about the program.
"The program should have a name change, from 'women's studies' to 'gender and women's studies,'" Cupka-Head said. "Not only because it may lessen the stigma of 'women-only' classes, but also to bring in more varied review of what gender means in our society and around the world."
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