AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n
Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Administrators at UNC Wilmington plan to strip the Gender Studies and Research Center of its independence and its leadership as part of a wider restructuring effort at the university.<\/p>\n Read more Popular soft-serve chain closed Triangle shop. Now Tim Hortons wants to move in<\/a><\/p>\n The university will eliminate the position of director at its Gender Studies and Research Center. The center \u2014 which offers a minor in Women\u2019s, Gender and Sexuality Studies<\/a> \u2014 will be brought under the university\u2019s Interdisciplinary Studies umbrella.<\/p>\n The current director of the center, Dana Stachowiak, studies topics like gender justice and transgender inclusivity. They have a doctoral degree in education from UNC Greensboro.<\/p>\n Now, their primary role on campus will no longer exist.<\/p>\n Stachowiak spoke to The News & Observer about the decision\u2019s potential impact on the university and on their work. The center plays a unique role on campus, they said, bridging academic affairs, student affairs, outside partnerships, and campus initiatives such as UPLfT<\/a>, a leadership program geared toward students who identify as women, nonbinary and transgender. Pronounced \u201cuplift,\u201d Stachowiak described the program as \u201cwildly successful.\u201d Now, they worry what will become of it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe loss of independent leadership places many of the [center\u2019s] signature initiatives at risk,\u201d Stachowiak said. \u201c… even if some programs continue to exist, they may not be able to operate at the same scope, consistency, or impact without a dedicated leader.\u201d<\/p>\n Most importantly, Stachowiak said, transgender students, staff and faculty will lose \u201ca central advocate for scholarship, visibility, and institutional support when they lose [the center] as it has been. [It] sends a message that their concerns and experiences are not institutional priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n Stachowiak is one of two professors who teach courses primarily in the Women\u2019s, Gender and Sexuality Studies minor. They are also a tenured professor in UNCW\u2019s educational leadership degree program, a role they will return to full-time in July.<\/p>\n The change is part of a reorganization at UNCW that moves 10 distinct programs under Interdisciplinary Studies. Those include minors in Africana Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Digital Humanities, European Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Native American Studies, Russian Studies, and Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.<\/p>\n Of these programs, Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is the only one that was housed under a standalone research center overseen by its own director.<\/p>\n \u201cServing as director has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my professional career,\u201d Stachowiak said. \u201cI have loved my job every single day that I\u2019ve gone to it, even on the hardest days. But I also deeply value my identity as a professor. So I\u2019m really excited to return to teaching, mentoring students, collaborating with my outstanding colleagues in the College of Ed, and pursuing new research opportunities in my home department.\u201d<\/p>\n Stachowiak\u2019s concern, they said, is not the end of their time as director, but the end of the time when the center had a director at all.<\/p>\n Read more NC businessman donates Queen Anne-style chicken coop to vice president\u2019s mansion<\/a><\/p>\n The university says the Gender Studies and Research Center will now be the domain of the university\u2019s Interdisciplinary Studies director. That role is newly created and open to applicants from across the university \u2014 with a start date of July 1.<\/p>\n The Interdisciplinary Studies director will appoint a coordinator for the Gender Studies and Research Center, the university says.<\/p>\n \u201cDecisions regarding program structure and staffing are based on institutional needs, strategic priorities and operational effectiveness,\u201d wrote university spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle in a statement to The News & Observer explaining the decision to eliminate the role.<\/p>\n Stachowiak, they said, felt locked out of that decision-making process.<\/p>\n The justification given to Stachowiak was that the university couldn\u2019t justify funding both a director for the center and the new director of the Interdisciplinary Studies position, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand and respect that university leaders are often required to make difficult decisions, and that there may be considerations of which I\u2019m not aware and do not necessarily need to be aware of in my role,\u201d Stachowiak said. \u201cMy primary concern throughout this process of restructuring of the GSRC has been that lack of transparency and collaborative engagement. … It reflects for us a longstanding pattern in which women and trans communities are excluded from conversations and decisions that directly affect their well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n Stachowiak said they\u2019ve heard similar concerns about transparency from other faculty, staff, and students in the wake of this decision.<\/p>\n Todd Berliner, professor of film studies at UNCW and president of the school\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the removal of the director of the Gender Studies and Research Center raises several concerns. He says the top-down nature of the decision \u2014 a change he said is both managerial and academic \u2014 violates shared governance, the principle that ensures faculty a voice in the management of the university.<\/p>\n Berliner said the change might be a reaction to wider political influence.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this period when programs addressing the issues and problems of vulnerable people in North Carolina are being eliminated, this change also has the appearance of political expediency,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe don\u2019t want politics and politicians interfering in the free exchange of knowledge in higher education \u2014 we don\u2019t want politics and politicians deciding what programs universities have and what they teach.\u201d<\/p>\n The UNC System banned initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion in 2024. Several campuses closed their DEI offices<\/a>, while others renamed and reorganized them, The N&O reported at the time. UNCW shut down its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and shifted some identity and cultural centers into the Division of Student Affairs, The N&O reported.<\/p>\n