Outgoing director of the OSU Women's Center Beth Rietveld

Beth Rietveld, outgoing director of the Women’s Center at Oregon State University, is the recipient of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Women’s Studies Association.

The award recognizes individuals who have advanced women’s equality and served as advocates, role models and mentors to other women. Rietveld was cited for her dedication to gender equity, and her engagement with policies that helped shape the course of gender issues in the workplace.

“You have clearly provided a standard of excellence and enduring legacy at Oregon State University and within the Women’s Centers community,” said Katie Hanna, co-chair of the association’s awards committee.

Rietveld will receive the award at a ceremony on Nov. 10 at the Women’s Center Pre-Conference in Atlanta, Ga. Her mother will fly out to witness the ceremony.

“I feel a sense of pride to finish my career with this incredible honor,” Rietveld said. “As I have seen my Women’s Center peers receive awards in past years, I have always held them in such high esteem and awe. I am completely amazed to now join this elite group.”

Rietveld helped found the OSU Faculty Women’s Network as a forum for faculty women to share triumphs and difficulties, and she also helped develop a Graduate Women’s Network to support female graduate students as they move through the academy and into careers. She pushed to create several university positions, including the Office of Women’s Advancement and Gender Equity and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Education office within student health.

Last year, Oregon Women in Higher Education created a new award named in honor of Rietveld. The “Beth Rietveld Award for Outstanding Service to Oregon Women in Higher Education” recognized the OSU director’s service and was meant to inspire a similar spirit of dedication, leadership and activism in others.

~ Theresa Hogue

Nahed Al Shareif and Fatimah Almousawi appear in this year's Calendar of Hope. (photo: Tina Buescher)

Two years ago, the Women’s Center produced a popular “Calendar of Hope,” which asked participants to complete the phrase, “When Violence Against Women and Children Ends… I will…” This year, the calendar asks models, all connected with OSU, to describe a world in which sexism has ended.

Photographer Tina Buescher captured the spirit of each model in black and white. Participants included students, staff and faculty, all dreaming of a world without sexism.

“When sexism ends…women will have the chance to control their own destinies,” said Nahed Al Shareif and Fatimah Almousawi.

“When sexism ends… we will understand how to love each other,” Craig Bidiman said.

Norma Cardenas and her daughter Maya are also featured in the calendar.

Models include: Diane Davis, Craig Bidiman, Keisha Merchant, Barb Lachenbruch, Jessica Calhoun, Virginia Martin, Christian Mathies, Kate Sanders, Amanda Littke, Kryn Freehling-Burton, Ellen Momsen, Tonga Hopoi, Norma Cardenas, Fatimah Almousawi, Nahed Al Shareif, Gustavo Martinez-Padilla, Todd Simmons, Rebecca Chavez, Gita Ramaswamy, Mamta Accapadi, Courtney Strohmeyer, Beth Rietveld and the Women’s Center staff.

18-month Calendars are available at the OSU Women’s Center. Cost is $15. Checks should be payable to the “OSU Foundation.”

“I was a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears, tenure-track professor who had no idea what she was doing,” she said.

At the time, her department was predominantly male, and Gray felt a little lost and lonely. She felt like she needed to connect with other female faculty members for support, but she didn’t know how to do it.

Juanita Phillips, center,administrative program assistant for recreational sports, speaks with two other guests during the OSU Women’s Network Open House on May Day in the Memorial Union. The network is an expansion of the faculty women’s network, and now includes staff as well. (Photo: Theresa Hogue)

So she contacted the only female OSU administrator at the time, Joanne Trow, who invited her over to her office to talk. The discussion grew into an idea, the creation of a faculty women’s network.

Gray took on the task, and 200 women responded to the first request to meet.

“Obviously there was a need, and we were born,” Gray said.

During those first years in the early 1980s, the network tackled a lot of issues, from forums on how to negotiate salary to how to deal with sexual harassment. Guest speakers from other universities were invited in, and social gatherings rotated around food and conversation.

Beth Rietveld, director of the OSU Women’s Center, was one of the early members of the board, and took over the running of the network for two decades.

“I felt it was a welcoming atmosphere,” she recalled, even when the topics were tough. The network focused on issues that were unique to women, such as how to balance being a mom and a professional, what childcare options were available, how to navigate promotion and tenure in a heavily male environment.

“Some topics led to us taking suggestions to the upper levels of administration,” Rietveld said.

When the Office for Women’s Advancement and Gender Equality was formed last year, Rietveld decided it was only right to hand over the operations of the network to Donna Champeau’s office. Champeau, the director of WAGE, was glad to make the network a part of WAGE, but she felt that the network needed a little expansion to fit in with WAGE’s mission of social justice.

Beth Rietveld, director of the Women’s Center, talks with Donna Champeau, right, director of the Office of Women’s Advancement and Gender Equality, and Kathy Gunter, College of Health and Human Sciences. (photos: Theresa Hogue)

“We want to break barriers down,” Champeau said, including those of class, race and status within the university. So after a lot of discussion, it was decided to shift the network from being faculty focused, to being inclusive of all women who work on campus, including classified staff that were previously not included in the “faculty” designation.

“There was always the sense that we might lose something, but we are going to try hard to provide programming for all areas and interests,” Champeau said.

Mirabelle Fernandes-Paul of the WAGE Office is now in charge of the OSU Women’s Network (OWN), and at an open house on May Day, she suggested that members form their own special interest subgroups, “So that everyone feels anchored in sisterhood,” she said. Those subgroups can be divided many different ways, from interests like quilting or music, to regional origin, to work type.

Champeau said the network provides support, but it also allows women on campus an opportunity to use skills they have which may not always be expressed in the work that they do.

“This organization can address issues to empower women and bring women together,” she said. “But we don’t have to join hands in a circle and sing ‘Kumbaya.’”

For more information about OWN, go to http://oregonstate.edu/wage/OWN. Members can make a suggested donation of $20 or less, but it is not required to participate in OWN activities. The donation will go toward programming costs.

~ Theresa Hogue