Judy Putnam

Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING – The end of an era is near, and it’s a little sad. Michigan State University says it will reopen the now-closed women’s lounge at the MSU Union as a generic space for both sexes.

University of Michigan-Flint professor Mark J. Perry, like a skunk at a lawn party, has filed a civil rights complaint, saying that men’s rights were violated when the university spent money on a space that doesn’t welcome the guys.

Though the university says the lounge was being converted before the complaint was filed, Perry has been beating this drum for awhile.

Perry, who blogs for American Enterprise Institute, has a point. We wouldn’t tolerate, nor should we, an enclave that served only men. So how can we flip the script and use different rules when it comes to a special lounge for women?

I understand that being exactly equal doesn't always mean things are equitable. Women have additional safety concerns and may want a space free from catcalls or unwanted advances that male students may not have to endure. Still, giving extra real estate to one gender feels too much like a reverse good-ole-boys club and perpetuates the inequities that women have fought hard to overcome.

So I'm struggling with the gender equity of this issue, the fairness of it, weighed against the fact that future female Spartans will not be able to experience this charming cocoon of a spot as I did. As an alumna, the women’s lounge is one of my favorite places on campus. It has a strong tradition that dates back to 1925 when it was used a safe refuge for co-eds waiting for rides. The corresponding men’s lounge disappeared decades ago, likely in the late '60s, Jason Cody, university spokesman, said in an email.

My junior year, I lived a few blocks from the lounge and used it as my personal study space. I’d arrive early and stay late, paying my procrastination dues. To me, the lounge was a comforting retreat where I could be alone in a corner, often by a window, and the quiet would allow me to concentrate.

Others have told me it’s the one place they felt safe to nap and study without fear of theft or other concerns. The word ‘safe’ comes up a lot. Women, particularly in an all-hours campus environment, are at higher risk for sexual assault than men.

Today’s campus feminists are pushing back, tying the demise of the lounge to changes in women’s programs and the university’s mishandling of sexual assault complaints.

Student Alyssa Maturen has posted a petition to protest the changes.

“…it is extremely important to have a place on campus where these women can go and feel protected. Now our lounge, the only room on campus where women could relax and just be around other women, is being taken away," she wrote.

Maturen, a sophomore studying marine biology, said she would be fine with adding a men's lounge (and so would I) but she doesn't want the women's lounge to be converted.

"That’s the place I could go when I wanted to not be approached," she said. "The atmosphere was so safe and so relaxing and comforting it was a place I could focus the best."

I like their spirit but just can't totally agree with them.

Cody said that the decision was made in consultation with the president's office and the university's Title IX office that polices for sex discrimination.



"This decision was reached to ensure access for all students, consistent with the university’s federal Title IX obligations, and not as the result of any one individual’s complaint," he wrote.

I’m old enough to remember when women who wanted to be sports writers had no access to the post-game interviews because they couldn’t go into the locker rooms. Your chance at success without that access? Zilch.

I once worked in a small Texas town that was famous for an annual, all-male political gathering where candidates and elected officials would meet with the area’s movers and shakers. Women were expressly not invited to the event, even into the 1970s. The unfairness to women seeking political office or wanting to be part of the process was astounding.

And do we even need to bring up that when fund-raising for construction of the MSU Union began in 1915, women still didn’t have the right to vote?

Those past grievances were clearly wrong. But so is turning the tables on men.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Write to her at 300 S. Washington Square Suite #300 Lansing, MI, 48933. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.