Happy New Year to all!  It's great to be back at work, especially with a space heater making my office warm and cozy.

 I was fortunate enough to start off the year with a breakfast meeting with Sarah Brylinsky, Dickinson's fierce Sustainability Education Coordinator.  Sarah and I are co-teaching a Fall 2010 course in Ecofeminism and met to get an early start on our course plans.  It was invigorating to swap ideas and sketch out (literally) ways to make the class grow.  We'll be getting together later this week for an extravaganza:  bringing boxes of articles and books together in a big room with a big whiteboard and mapping out all of the possible connections & explosions that the course could create.  From there we will develop something manageable (but no less miraculous).

 Also on the agenda for the week--I'll be meeting tomorrow with representatives from Facilities and with Paula Lima, the amazing Director of the Office of Diversity Initiatives, to finalize our plans for the Women's Center, ODI, and Conflict Resolution Resource Center to move into Landis House by the time classes start.  Aaaah!  So quick, so exciting.  Landis is located at College and Pomfret Streets, one block south of High Street and across from Adams and Drayer residence halls.  I have fingers and toes crossed that, once we see what needs to happen for us to be ready, I can get the office packed and work with Paula to shape our shared resource room/living room so it's ready to open on January 25th.  Needless to say, there will be fabulous paint colors, comfortable pillows, tea and coffee, and plenty of freebies.  Did I mention that this will be happening quickly?

Lately, I'm a fan of Outlook's Tasks function, which allows me to list things months in advance of the due date and then check them off with a satisfying mouse click.  So, straight from my Outlook to your eyes, here's this week's to-do list:

--student worker description:  now that the WC is a little more established, how could I use a student worker, if one were to become available?

--internship position description:  along the same lines, what could the WC start to do to better develop internship possibilities?

--read Feminist Frontiers:  I have a lot of homework in the coming weeks!  Specifically, I have to review the chapters in this textbook to decide the order & plans for my spring 2010 Introduction to Women's Studies course.

 --review spring programs:  gotta take a clinical and purposeful look at what I have planned for the spring.  With events (either primary or co-sponsored) planned for every week of the spring semester, am I really using WC resources to their maximum effect?  I can't be present for all of that and remain standing for the important administrative reflection period in May & June.  So this strategic review helps me figure out what will stay and what will go--or, as a third option, what I might be able to encourage students to pick up and run away with. 

--Paula Tres Vidas:  along the same lines, there's a performer who does an engaging show about Latina women that I'm curious to bring to campus.  I need to check in with Paula about her plans and see if it is a good idea for a possible collaboration either this year or next.

 --ecofeminist items:  gather my info, both conceptual and physical, for the big haul with Sarah at the end of the week!

 --read Do I Look Fat In This?:  a first-year student approached me about developing a reading group using this engaging text about body image.  I'd like to read it before we get together to see whether it's the right kind of book for the WC's first-ever reading group activity.

--Qu@D powerpoint:  Qu@D is the genius acronym invented by Dickinson's own Stephanie Gilmore, Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, that stands for Queer @ Dickinson.  This powerpoint is an inaugural project to orient staff in the Division of Student Development to some of the critical issues and resources for providing solid campus support for LGBTQ-identified students and colleagues.  If it goes well, we are hoping it can serve as a pilot program.  Paula and Stephanie, along with Josh Lapps '08, wrote much of the initial document and Elizabeth Farner (Assistant Director of Campus Life) has stepped in to aid with our writing & coordinating process.  So I've offered to shape our text into a true working presentation.

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I've got my work cut out for me, so I am going to snap to it!  Listening to my New Year's mix to keep me going--this year it's titled "It's the Love", in honor of all the great friends and work I had in 2009.  Already 2010 promises more of the same.  As always, feel free to email me at bartlows@dickinson.edu if you'd like to get involved in any of these plans or projects.  I'll check back in with everyone next Monday!

Be well,

Susannah