If you’ve been a student at this University for any amount of time, odds are you’ve probably heard that we have a Women’s Center.
Our campus is not unique in this regard.

All around the nation, campus women’s centers seek to serve the student population by offering support for female students and hosting educational programs on issues related to gender.

But if we have so many women’s centers, where are the men’s centers?

The mere suggestion that universities should have men’s centers tends to create puzzled expressions.

Many question why a university would even need a men’s center in the first place.

Even so, the question seems fair enough.

If universities are providing women’s centers as a resource for their female students, why wouldn’t they have a similar center for men?

I personally believe that young men are increasingly in need of spaces where they can discuss their issues.

While men’s centers might not be a practical option for most universities, we should be open to exploring ways to support our male students in whatever ways we can.

One argument against having men’s centers is that campus resources like the Women’s Center and LGBTQ+ Resource Center are aimed toward historically marginalized groups.

Given the fact that men as a group don’t fit this description, having a resource center specifically for them seems unnecessary.
UWO sophomore Emily Miller said that the need for a women’s center outweighs the need for a men’s center.

“Men don’t need that center,” Miller said. “Women need it more because we’ve faced so many years of oppression and not having the same rights as men.”

Other students have doubts about the necessity of any of these resource centers, whatever group they are supposed to help.

To them, the cost of paying for these centers only adds to an already long list of unnecessary items in the university budget.

UWO senior Aaron Knoll said that both women’s centers and men’s centers place an unnecessary strain on university budgets.

“Whether or not you should have a men’s center, it’s similar to whether or not you should have a women’s center,” Knoll said. “For me personally, I don’t want to have to pay for either one.”

Despite the lack of support for men’s centers in particular, some students remain open to other resources for male students.

UWO sophomore Megan Olson said that having a resource for men on campus is a worthwhile goal.

“I definitely think that there should be a place that a man can go to if he feels like he has questions,” Olson said. “There should be a resource for men.”

Ultimately, there are a lot of reasons to be reluctant about having men’s centers on college campuses.

Between ideological hang-ups and ever-increasing problems with funding, men’s centers, at best, are something that universities might consider in the distant future.

But in the meantime, the student population can do its part to support male students on campus.