Collage of famous women in Murphy Hall
Morgan Kilger / The Bona Venture
BY: MORGAN KILGER, NEWS EDITOR
Throughout the month of March, several clubs at organizations at St. Bonaventure University celebrate Women’s History Month. SBU for Equality and Jandoli Women in Communications are hosting events or panels throughout March. The Jandoli School of Communication also recognizes their Woman of Promise award recipient.
Despite the clubs and organizations celebrating, several students believe Bonaventure could do more to recognize Women’s History Month.
“We should be doing this all year and every year,” said Dr. Lauren Matz, chair of the women’s studies department and English professor.
Another club recognizing Women’s History Month is SBU for Equality. Their main goal is to empower women and create change, according to Cassidy Bertino, a junior psychology major with a women’s studies minor and the president of SBU for equality.
SBU for Equality is a club that focuses on gender-based issues, specifically those of women,” said Bertino. “We provide a safe environment to create conversations around these issues and inspire students to take action. Our goal is to empower women and create change.”
According to Bertino, SBU for Equality will be hosting a campus-wide women’s drive. They are collecting toiletries, blankets, laundry items, products for children and feminine hygiene products for the local domestic violence shelter.
The drive will run from March 15 to March 27. Donation boxes will be scattered across campus and more information will be on the Noticeboard.
“Donation box locations and product lists will be posted on the noticeboard, we encourage students and faculty to donate.” said Bertino.
The Jandoli Women in Communications club is recognizing Women’s History Month with a guest speaker. JWIC aims to create a community within the Jandoli School of Communication by hosting speaker and bonding events.
Ellie Foley, a junior strategic communications major and co-president of JWIC with Fisher, said JWIC isn’t doing anything specific to acknowledge Women’s History Month. However, they are hosting a panel about mental health in the communications and journalism field.
“We will be hosting a round table talk with Lisa Robert Lewis about Mental Health in Communication and Journalism,” said Foley. “[Lisa Robert] Lewis will discuss how to manage work life balance while reporting on 24 hour news cycles, reporting on traumatic events and how to restore public trust in journalism.”
Lisa Robert Lewis is speaking on March 19 at 5:30 p.m. in Murphy 104.
Alongside JWIC, the Jandoli School of Communication celebrates Women’s History Month within their senior awards. The Jandoli School awards one female senior with the Dr. Mary A. Hamilton Woman of Promise award.
The Woman of Promise award is awarded to recognize a Jandoli School of Communication female student who has excelled in and out of the classroom, set an example for peers and demonstrated great promise for success in future endeavors, according to the St. Bonaventure University website.
The 2024 recipient of the award was Hadley Thompson, a senior political science and journalism major.
“This is a fitting award for her to receive because she shows a lot of promise,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the school of journalism and communications.
Chimbel believes Thompson is deserving of the award due to her contributions to the Jandoli school and her performance in and out of the classroom.
At Bonaventure, Thompson is a social media manager and contributor for HerCampus and a Student Ambassador. Outside of Bonaventure, she’s the editorial assistant for Innovation leader and participated in an internship with a politician from New York City in Albany, New York.
“She [Thompson] has proven over and over again, through her work in the [Jandoli] school and the school [Bonaventure] that she is a student who has enormous promise,” said Chimbel. “We’re all excited to see where her career and life goes.”
Thompson is grateful to receive the award. However, she finds it bittersweet.
“That it’s kind of awesome to be recognized for my time here, but it’s also admitting that my time here is coming to an end,” said Thompson. “That’s the sweet part of the bittersweet.”
Thompson was recognized on March 12 in the Doyle Conference Center. According to Chimbel, it’s not a coincidence that Thompson is being recognized during Women’s History Month.
“We specifically do the ceremony in March to tie it to Women’s History Month and when we really focus on women’s contributions to society,” said Chimbel. “It’s absolutely intentional that we award our woman of promise and hold the event in March.
Thompson agrees that it’s fitting for the woman of promise to be awarded in March. She enjoys the idea of recognizing women in a field that’s dominated by men.
“I feel like it’s really fitting, I also think it’s really wonderful,” said Thompson. “ It is really special [that] the school has their own award set aside for solely women, because it’s a field that can be overpowered a lot of the time.”
Despite the various clubs and organizations recognizing Women’s History month, several students feel more could be done.
“I do not think St. Bonaventure as a whole does enough to acknowledge Women’s History Month.” said Taitum Mason, a senior sports studies major.
Mason feels that Women’s History Month should be discussed outside of the classroom. After taking several women’s studies courses, Mason realized she only talked about Women’s History Month within those classes.
“I have only ever experienced Women’s History Month talks within classes held by [Dr. Lauren] Matz. She is very passionate about what she does in regards to the Women Studies program,” said Mason.
Mason suggests that Bonaventure hosts panels or discussions surrounding the topic of Women’s History Month.
“I feel that they could look into hosting talks. I know HerCampus and Empower would be great hosts for these talks,” said Mason.
McNaughton agrees with Mason.
“I would love to see more events centered around women and their accomplishments, like panels of female faculty, accomplished and established female guest speakers or even just interviews with female students,” said McNaughton.
McNaughton herself wants females of all groups — athletes, faculty and students — to be recognized.
“I would really like to see more recognition of female student-athletes, staff, faculty and students,” said McNaughton. “There are so many exceptional women here deserving of appreciation.”
Thompson, however, disagrees with Mason and McNaughton. Thompson believes that Bonaventure does enough to recognize Women’s History Month.
“It’s kind of difficult sometimes, there’s so many milestones and little accomplishments that women make everyday that sometimes it’s hard to recognize all of those things.” said Thompson.
Mason, McNaughton and Thompson all agree that Bonaventure could expand how they recognize the female students and staff on campus.
“We, as female students at Bonaventure, are lucky to be surrounded by such bright and promising women, and that should really be highlighted and discussed more often.” said McNaughton.
kilgermi22@bonaventure.edu
