Women’s Center aims to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for students looking for support from university

Rachel Arehart
Antelope Staff

Though called the Women’s Center, advocates within provide services to male, female and non-binary students alike, coordinating services for all in need.

Recently the Women’s Center has been focusing on getting information to the students about the services the office provides to eliminate any negative stigma about visiting the Women’s Center said Associate Director of Counseling Care and the Women’s Center Kiphany Hof.
“This year we have really worked on getting our name out there so people know they can come here,” Hof said.

“Our job is to look at gender equality. Historically women have not been equal to men, so that is why it is called the Women’s Center, because we really advocate for women’s rights,” Hof said.

Hof is fairly new as the director, but is already making strides developing programming that will make the UNK Women’s Center an even more successful place on campus.

Hof started at UNK Counseling Care three and a half years ago. She was promoted one year ago to Counseling Care Associate Director, which made her head of the Women’s Center.

Recent changes in funding had threatened the Women’s Center’s viability. “The director came to me and said the big grant for the Women’s Center was going away, which funded all of the positions at the Women’s Center.  With that going away, there wasn’t going to be any money to run the Women’s Center anymore. The director at the time wanted to keep the Women’s Center going, and asked me what I thought about running it.” Hof said.

“My background is in counseling, so I never thought purposefully about being in a Women’s Center,” Hof said. “It’s been a new adventure for me and I’m so excited that I did it because I see such a positive impact and the change that we can make and be supportive of people no matter what they’re going through. It’s a new passion that I stumbled upon.”

Hof said her job is to oversee the graduate assistant and other interns who come up with ideas on how to reach out to students about gender equality, sexual assault and gender violence.

“The thing that is so unique and wonderful about Kiphany is that even if she’s not directly involved with something you’re doing, she’s very supportive and willing to help in any way she can,” said Bailey Bond, the Women’s Center graduate assistant.

The Women’s Center’s biggest effort is programming. On Feb. 15, the Women’s Center is hosting Sex in the Dark, a sexual health education event.     
    
The Women’s Center is also introducing the first Men’s Project, which is an 11-week project that brings men from the campus together to work on gender violence issues.

“I’m really excited to do the Men’s Project, which focuses on men’s leadership, and men becoming allies as far as trying to stop gender violence,” Hof said.

The Women’s Center is also a safe haven for students to seek refuge and find help when dealing with sexual assault, rape, harassment, stalking, gender violence, and hate crimes.

“We want to be a place where people feel safe enough to talk to us. We can provide links to other places on campus, whether that is Counseling Care, Title IX, police, or with a S.A.F.E. Center advocate. We want to be that one-stop-shop for questions for students who don’t know how they can be supported by the university,” Hof said.

Hof said she finds meaning in her work connecting people with useful resources that are meaningful to help them with their recovery.

“From individual, to system-wide, to campus-wide, prevention, “post-vention,” getting people to think critically, it makes my job meaningful to me.
     
“Working with people who are so enthusiastic and passionate about the Women’s Center is my favorite part about this job. I love how contagious that enthusiasm is and it makes me excited about it too,” Hof said.
       
Hof recognizes that the Counseling Care and Women’s Center offer similar services and said that there is a lot of crossover between the two offices.     

“Sometimes we have students who reach out to the Women’s Center and they tell us bits and pieces about their story or they might tell us how this has affected them, and we’ll always recommend that they see counseling, whether that’s on campus or off campus, just because they could use some extra support,” Hof said.
        
“A lot of times people will go and sit with a counselor and they start telling them about some things that happened to them and the counselors don’t know all of the resources on campus so they would refer the student to the Women’s Center.

“It’s not scary, it’s just a place you can go and ask any question, and you won’t be judged by it. We’re normal people, too. We are here to help you, not here to see you in any negative light.  It’s not only for people who have problems or have been raped; we do lots of other things here,” Hof said.