Whereas The Women's Studies Program at Auburn University has existed since 1984, has had since then as its central mission the teaching administration of a 18-hour (semester system) interdisciplinary minor, and the promotion of research and scholarship about women and gender across disciplines; and,
Whereas The Women's Studies Program has offered enhanced educational opportunities and excellence in undergraduate education through quality teaching by senior faculty utilizing current research methods and findings, and advanced information technology, and has provided a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum innovative in new course offerings for enhanced career preparation of undergraduate students; and
Whereas The Women's Studies Program has since its inception sixteen years ago provided leadership in the promotion and recognition of excellence in research and scholarship about women and gender through a multi-tiered speakers program; and
Whereas The Women's Studies Program Speakers Program has, in cooperation with faculty and administrators from all colleges and schools at Auburn, facilitated the delivery of research and enhanced the promotion of female faculty by identifying and inviting to speak Auburn faculty. regionally and internationally recognized scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students conducting research on women and gender; and
Whereas The Women's Studies Program has facilitated faculty and student professional networking and faculty promotion by providing financial assistance to faculty and students attending conferences for the presentation of research; and
Whereas There are fifty-three Auburn University faculty from nearly all colleges and schools who are members of the Women's Studies faculty; and
Whereas The Women's Studies Program has never operated with a permanent budget, or with adequate, stable funding,
Be it resolved that the Auburn University Faculty Senate endorsed the value that the Women's Studies Program brings to the campus in the form of diversity of thought and enrichment of educational experience, and to that end
Be it further resolved that the Auburn University Faculty Senate calls upon the President of the University to take every effort to institutionalize the Women's Studies Program as a stable, permanently funded program.