New program focuses on women By Jenee' Kivin, May 2009 Editor-in-chief
Starting in spring 2008, a new academic certificate became available to students at Paradise Valley Community College: the Women’s Studies Academic Certificate.
This program was initiated on campus by Dr. Lois Roma-Deeley of the English department, who has been teaching various Women’s Studies courses for years. She says that some of her courses have been cross-listed with English humanities, and over the years she has heard a multitude of students express strong interests in a women’s studies certificate at PVCC.
While working with Dr. Nancy Hellner of Mesa Community College, Roma-Deeley learned that Hellner had started a women’s studies certificate program at MCC that was approved by the Maricopa County Community College District. Roma-Deeley wanted to follow suit.
After many discussions with Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Mary Lou Mosley about the feasibility of offering a women’s studies certificate at the PVCC campus and talking with faculty to make sure there was enough interest, Hellner agreed to share her program model. The necessary paperwork was completed by Roma-Deeley and Mosley in about two months.
“I find that the issues surrounding these theories and courses and ideas and so forth are electrifying,” says Roma-Deeley, “so it is important that we offer this opportunity to students.”
Roma-Deeley’s interest in feminism is no new thing.
Before starting this program, she says that she has been actively involved with feminism since the early 1970s at which point she worked for the only free feminist newspaper in the country at that time, which was featured in magazines such as “The New York Times,” “Newsday” and “McCall’s.” The newspaper confronted issues related to gender, race and class.
“I was a writer, editor, PR person and columnist,” says Roma-Deeley. “Each of us at the newspaper ‘did it all.’”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Roma-Deeley taught Women’s Studies classes at Arizona State University, during which she believes she had discovered what she considers the “most stimulating and cutting edge scholarship of our time.”
From her experiences of working in the field of feminism, Roma-Deeley says, “I have learned how powerful this discipline is; how these ‘mere ideas’ can bring about positive change in individual lives as well as in the broader community.”
The certificate requires a total of 15 credits including one required course, Women and Society (WST100), worth three credits.
Heather Pearson, a student currently enrolled in WST100, says, “This class allowed me to develop a framework for how I perceive everything that’s happening around me…gave me a new perception of everything.”
Matt Williams, another student currently enrolled in WST100 who is majoring in construction management, says, “Listening to what all the ladies have to say, I kind of start to see where the women are coming from in my life, so it helps me to figure out what I need to do in relationships.”
Earlier in the semester Roma-Deeley assigned a “gender bender.” This is an assignment in which students go out and do something that is not socially accepted for their gender. Williams opted to go to a local salon and get a pedicure.
“It was really, really nice,” he says.
In addition to taking WST100, there is a list of 19 restricted elective courses to choose from in order to obtain the additional 12 credits needed to receive the certificate.
The Women’s Studies program is a liberal arts certificate program that enables students to explore contemporary and historical feminism practices and theories. The courses discuss from the program description “topics such as history, culture, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender in order to help bring about equality, understanding and peace.”
Roma-Deeley also describes the Women’s Studies courses as presenting an intellectual challenge, intellectual rigor and a very real world, very practical examination of how theory gets put into practice.
The MCC Women’s Studies program Web page states, “The certificate in Women’s Studies serves different types of students, including those who already have degrees but are interested in exploring Women’s Studies, those who plan to pursue another academic major but want to develop specialization in Women’s Studies and those who plan to major in Women’s Studies at a university.”
“I believe a Women’s Studies certificate would enrich any background,” says Roma-Deeley.
She lists a handful of careers that would benefit from a Women’s Studies Academic Certificate: nonprofit organization work, business, creative arts, education, public policy, journalism, law, social work and nursing.
Mosley says that the next step for the Women’s Studies program is to get it on a rotational semester by semester schedule.
“We have not finalized which classes will be fall or which ones will be spring,” says Mosley. “Some classes haven’t even been taught before, and we need to get that started.”
Mosley also reveals that one of the limitations has been that classrooms are being very well used, and there is not much physical room to teach new courses, but with the opening of the Life Science building in the fall, this hurdle should be eliminated.
If students are interested in learning more about the Women’s Studies Academic Certificate, they may contact Roma-Deeley via e-mail at lois.roma-deeley@pvmail.maricopa.edu.
“I often say it’s like fish in water,” says Roma-Deeley. “In Women’s Studies, we are the fish jumping out of the water, analyzing the water, experimenting with the water and then jumping right back into the water.”
