On March 3, Baldwin Wallace University will be hosting the grand opening for the new pop-up Women’s Center in the Strosacker Union to kick-off their Women’s History Month celebrations. The event will be open from 12:00pm-1:00pm and 5:00pm-6:30pm in the faculty lounge.
This project has been headed by Programs Manager of the Center for Inclusion Courtney Robinson. She and her team are excited to transform the faculty lounge into an unrecognizable space for students to learn more about the women of BW’s past and present.
Informational graphics on notable women from the university’s history will line the walls and many of the women working on campus today will be attending. Also attending will be BW’s newly appointed president Lee Fisher and his wife, who will be taking part in the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Students who show up get to enjoy complimentary refreshments and listen to the musical stylings of the BW Conservatory of Performing Arts’ own Treble Choir, as well as some remarks by Erika Howard, Interim Executive Director of Case Western’s Women’s Center.
Robinson expressed the influence that Case Western University has had in the inspiration behind this grand opening. Last spring, a group of BW students traveled to CWU and experienced firsthand the benefits of having such a space on a college campus.
“While we were sitting there I was like ‘wow, it would be really cool if we had a women’s center on our campus’…I took the idea to Claudine and she loved it, so it kind of took off from there,” Robinson said as she described her lightbulb moment.
BW offers many helpful resources for its students to take advantage of, and it is intended that the Women’s Center will be included in these helpful resources.
During the entire month of March this center will be offering afternoon Coffee Chats and evening Tea Times on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These events will be opportunities for women on campus to discuss topics of which they are passionate about. Some prominent speakers who will be participating include Dr. Léna Crain, Susan Van Vorst, and Colleen Asaad speaking on topics such as conflict and resolution, leadership, and financial literacy respectively.
Noted by Robinson, there is not much that brings people together better than tea and coffee. Not only will there be engaged learning, but also the opportunity to leave your emotional baggage by the door and take a deep breath.
“Students are on so often…it’s a spot to sink into a comfortable bean bag, put your feet up, and relate to one another…it’s about exhaling,” Claudine Grunenwald Kirschner, Director of New Student Experience, said.
The pop-up Women’s Center will close at the conclusion of the March; however, this will not mean the end of the center entirely. Robinson has expressed her optimism that the Women’s Center will return in 2026.
“Claudine and I’s vision is to make this a reoccurring thing, so we’re hoping to do it again in March of next year…of course the pie in the sky is to have a permanent space.”
