New NWSA Student Caucus Leaders Call for Student Action!

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November 21, 2002

To All NWSA Student Members,

We, Andrea Dottolo and Sarah Tillery, are writing this to let you know that as of June 2002, we have been recognized by the governing council as the co-chairs of the student caucus. Both of us have been members of NWSA for a number of years and in the last few of those years, we have noticed that there has been relative inactivity among women's studies students as a whole and between students and the organization of NWSA. This has got to change. With the success of hundreds of undergraduate programs and the increasing number of MA and PhD programs, it is vital that we begin and maintain our connections with each other and with one of the few professional organizations in women's studies. It is also crucial therefore, that NWSA step up and begin to help us as much as we, in the past, have helped it by attending conferences, paying membership dues, etc. This is where student caucus becomes important. As a caucus, we have a voice in this organization and we need to be sure that we use it.

Two urgent matters of business:

(1) As the annual conference proposal deadline (Nov. 24) approaches, we would like to encourage you to check the student caucus box on your registration forms. This membership is free of charge. Checking the student caucus box increases the visibility of students at the conference and officially records your membership in the caucus.

(2) If you are not receiving this email via the student caucus listserv, please subscribe. This can be done by going to http://www.nwsa.org/stc.htm. All instructions to subscribe are on the first page. This is a quick and easy process that will put you in contact with the conversations and happenings of the NWSA student caucus.

Upcoming Matters of Concern:

Over the summer, we mapped out some reasonable goals for the next year (up until the conference in New Orleans 2003). The first problem we noticed was money. According to the most recent published budget (June 2002), student caucus has only $45 in the bank. This is connected to our second goal - a breakfast gathering/lounge at the upcoming conference. Since we would like to host a breakfast for students, we need some money. As such, we are issuing fundraising letters to a number of Women's Studies departments in order to collect donations to help fund the breakfast in June. At the breakfast, we are hoping that students will be able to come and eat for free, chat with each other, and hopefully hold our annual caucus meeting in person. As the lounge will be open for the entire morning, we are hoping that it might also serve as a place to relax, converse, or "get away" from the conference for a moment. After money and a conference breakfast, our final goal is to set up some sort of governing structure for the caucus so that we might better interface with each other and the larger organization.

To let you know who we are, here is some brief information. Andrea is a second year doctoral student at the University of Michigan where she is working toward a joint degree in Women's Studies and Psychology. Sarah is a third year doctoral student in Women's Studies at the University of Maryland.

These are our thoughts so far and we encourage you to reply to one or both of us with any concerns or questions that you have at this point. We apologize with this enormous email, but we wanted to introduce ourselves and open up our discussions to include everyone on the list.

Thanks for your time.

Andrea Dottolo dottolo@hotmail.com
and Sarah Tillery st140@umail.umd.edu

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