IRVINE : Building Starts on UCI Women’s Center

After 20 years of holding workshops in borrowed places, a women’s center at UC Irvine is getting a permanent home on campus.

Construction started last week for the Rachel Long Morgan Women’s Opportunities Center. The group has been renting offices in University Tower, across the street from the main campus, and offering seminars at local schools, libraries and vacant college classrooms.

“It means the culmination of a dream of a place of our own,” said Elaine Hart, the center’s director. “It means validation of the goals and the activities of the women’s opportunity center by the community at large.”

For a $35 fee, the center offers classes on building self-esteem, dealing with divorce and grappling with career changes. Lawyers, corporate executives and UC Irvine professors offer advice about how to handle personal crises, legal issues and interviewing for jobs. For those who cannot afford the fee, a revolving scholarship fund has been established.

“What we do is help people enrich their lives and open them up to opportunities that exist,” Hart said.

About 500 people attend workshops and seminars regularly, not including members who may just stop to browse job listings. Although the programs are intended for women, men are permitted to belong to the center and attend workshops.

The new center is to be built near UCI’s Alumni House and is scheduled to be completed in summer, 1991.