The 'DP' sits down with new PCUW chair

Last week, College junior Adrienne Edwards was elected the new chair of the Penn Consortium for Undergraduate Women — the umbrella group for women’s groups on campus.
Edwards, a former Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, sat down with the DP to discuss her past and future involvement with PCUW.

Daily Pennsylvanian: Why did you choose to run for this position? What has your involvement with PCUW been in previous years?
Adrienne Edwards: I first joined my sophomore year as a constituent member, then I was on the board for Pre-Law Women at Penn and became the liaison between Pre-Law Women and PCUW. Then I joined the steering board at the end of my sophomore year as the vice chair of university relations. It was a natural progression, but I’ve always believed in the power that PCUW has so that’s primarily why I ran as chair.

DP: How will your past experience with PCUW affect what you do as chair this semester?
AE: I saw PCUW tackle certain challenges and one of the reasons I ran for chair was that I wanted to continue to look at these challenges and to address challenges that I even thought were not being addressed in past years. I wanted to continue and renew that legacy. In the past couple of years, I’ve seen PCUW try to address different challenges — for example, we’ve worked on lactation space, [and] this year we’re working on the Diversity Action Plan. Being part of that in the past, I wanted to continue to be a part of that in the future and have a driving role in making sure these issues were dealt with.

DP: What are some other challenges you wish to tackle as chair of PCUW?
AE: There are two challenges I will be making sure we look into next semester. We are going to focus on the government’s violence prevention grant at the Penn Women’s Center, which was recently ended. The grant previously allowed us to have a full-time violence prevention educator. We want to make sure that the University knows that violence prevention is an initiative that is still very important to students, and we want to see it continue on this campus.
The second challenge is in terms of female leadership — we definitely want to reach out to female leaders on campus and make sure that they know that PCUW has a space for them even if they may not be part of a constituent group or affiliated with any of the groups represented in PCUW. It is also a place for them — it’s not just for our constituencies.

DP: How has your membership in PCUW influenced your college experience?
AE: Being a part of PCUW has deepened my own personal identity as a feminist. During Women’s Week, I was certainly moved by author Susan Douglas, and the year before we had Donna Brazile. Hearing very successful and prominent women speak was empowering because it made me want to be the chair of PCUW to better the Penn community.

DP: Do you think your involvement in PCUW will carry over to your life after Penn?
AE: Definitely. Just by hearing those two keynote speakers and creating a network of like-minded women that support each other in that cause will help me in whichever industry I end up going into. I won’t feel as isolated if I do encounter subtle or very overt signs of sexism, but also just knowing the theory and practice behind feminist ideology is what I’ve picked up from being on PCUW.

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