Gender Equity Center

First Annual Gender Symposium REGISTRATION

Our Purpose

The Gender Equity Center is a campus resource where the Cal Poly community can connect for information, educational events, and leadership programs related to gender equity and identity. The center is a place for all individuals interested in working towards social justice concerning gender inequities. We fulfill the mission of Student Life and Leadership by providing educational and leadership opportunities for students and by empowering all individuals to have a voice at Cal Poly. The Gender Equity Center is committed to fostering a comfortable and all-encompassing Cal Poly experience for all regardless of gender identity.

Our Goals

Provide a safe space for respectful discussions about gender and social justice.

Discuss the intersections of sexism, hetero-sexism, racism, gender bias and violence.

Enhance the quality of Cal Poly students' lives by providing services that acknowledge the diversity of our students' experiences.

Sponsor events that address gender issues.

Create a campus free of violence and hate.

Provide leadership roles and opportunities for students.

Provide information and referrals concerning the personal safety of Cal Poly students.

Quarter Updates

Want to know what were doing this quarter? Check out our calendar at:

Spring Programs Calendar (PDF)

  Your browser does not support frames - <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=genderequitycenter1%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles">Go to calendar</a>

In Dedication to the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on February 14, 2011

Nomenclature
by Elie Axelroth

On the occasion of the ribbon cutting for the Gender Equity Center

Apples hanging on bowed limbs
Speckled, more oval than round.
Is it a Honeycrisp or a Holstein, or a Hudson's Golden Gem?
It brings us pleasure to name,
As if naming means anything more than simply remembering.
There in the orchard buzzing with honeybees,
(What do we really mean by Africanized Honeybees?)
A Broad-Billed Hummingbird
Its signature red beak and iridescent black wings,
Naming, labeling, categorizing, sorting, claiming
A pigeon hole for everything we see.

Hiking through wildflower meadows of
Wood Nymphs, Alpine Pink, Northern Bedstraw,
Across mountain ranges with names like:
Carson Pass and Mount McKinley.
Shoes crunching in virgin forest
(Now there's an important category).
Is it a Douglas Fir or a Long Leaf Pine
Or Pinus densiflora?
So many names, so little time!

And we, who are red and white and brown and yellow
Are given names.
And classes, and orders, sub-orders, genus, and species.
And genders and sexes
And race and ethnicity and sexual orientation.
All these categories and divisions we forget are pretend.
Deluding us into thinking it's all the same: the name and the thing.
The apple and the taste, the hummingbird and our delight
In its flittering, twittering, long beak transmittering pollen for honey,
Blurring the beauty and the complexity and the sacred of our lives.
Forgetting that an apple without a name
Is still so sweet.

2.14.11