A Note from the Director

Dear WSGS students, faculty, and friends,

Our lives have become very tumultuous in the past few days, especially when we received the news on Thursday that all classes will be shifting to online format for the rest of the semester due to the covid-19 virus. I know that some of you are upset about this change, as it will mean a major upheaval in our routines, as well as time away from friends and colleagues. This is especially difficult for those of you who were looking forward to the last few weeks of your senior year on campus.

Please know that the WSGS staff have already met to begin planning our work for the rest of the semester. Some of us will be in the office, others working from home. Our priorities are to continue to support and maintain rigorous academic standards and create a welcoming community for all. Unfortunately, our plans for our spring events have been either cancelled or postponed. However, we are hoping to present some of our events, especially the Feminist Lecture Series, in an online format in the coming weeks. We are also building a more robust social media presence so that we can all keep connected. Please see below and stay tuned for more information.

The WSGS faculty are also well on their way to transitioning their courses online. You should have heard from your instructors (or will soon) about plans for the next few days and weeks. Feel free to get in touch with me directly if you have any questions or concerns (ehemenway@luc.edu). The CAS dean’s office and university administration are also available if you need their help. For official university announcements and contact information, please see Loyola’s coronavirus webpage: https://www.luc.edu/coronavirus/

Finally, I want to assure all of you that we are committed to making the best of this challenging situation. We welcome ideas for sharing fun feminist activities online to keep our spirits up. This is a time when we need to make an extra effort to keep in touch with one another. While it might be easy to succumb to anxiety or loneliness, our community is one of the things that will help us get through these weeks.

With love,

Betsy Jones Hemenway
Director, WSGS

Feminist Lecture Series
As mentioned, we are working to ensure that the hard work of our Spring presenters is made available to you this semester and will send you more information for our online sessions as soon as we can. 

Our 40th Anniversary Event
In light of recent public health recommendations to avoid group gatherings, we will be postponing our 40th Anniversary Event, originally scheduled for March 24th, to take place in Fall 2020 instead.
Keep an eye out for future WSGS announcements, for we plan to still make the end of your time at Loyola an enriching one. Details for the rescheduled 40th Anniversary event will be communicated in the coming months, via both Loyola WSGS and Women & Children First social media and email channels.

Social Media & Staying In Touch
We will continue to work towards finding creative and effective ways to connect with all of you online. If you have any suggestions or if there is something you would like to see from us, please let us know. Finally, if you don’t do so already, follow us on our social handles: 

Instagram: @lucwsgs 

Facebook: @lucWSGS 
 

We are also trying out something new, a WSGS Slack channel for live-chatting, sharing memes, getting some virtual, social interaction and helping us all stay connected!