Press Releases

April 13, 2004

Southampton College Opens Women's Center Named for Local Activist

Contact:
Amanda Olsen
631-287-8313

Southampton, N.Y. - The official opening of Southampton College's new Deborah Ann Light Women's Center in room 214b of the Montauk Building is scheduled for Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m. The center, brainchild of the Women's Studies program director Professor Barbara Peters, is named for Deborah Ann Light, who donated her entire collection of Women's Studies books and papers. It will house a small library and be the site of student, faculty and community events. Musician Sandy Rapp will be performing selected original compositions at the opening.

Peters, an assistant professor of sociology at Southampton College, is a feminine success story in her own right, taking her education to the ultimate level while raising two children as a single mom.

This is not the first of Dr. Peters' efforts to come to fruition. Last summer she participated in the Summer Institute Conference in Zagreb, Croatia. The Conference was sponsored by the National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources on Women and concentrated on promoting a classless environment throughout the international workplace.

She also spent time at Brunel University in London, England for the Working Class Academics Conference, an organization which she founded. The WCA allows academics with blue-collar roots to meet others who have overcome similar circumstances. She helped found the Women's Faculty/Staff Collective and has written a book entitled "The Head Start Mother: Low-Income Mothers' Empowerment Through Participation."

Light, a thirty-year resident of the East End, has a history of involvement in projects of this nature. She created the Thanks Be To Grandmother Winifred Foundation, which gave grants to 310 women who were all over the age of 54 to carry out projects to enrich the lives of adult women. She also co-founded the Crones' Cradle Conserve in Citra, Fla., an 800 acre nature preserve, feminist retreat and organic garden that hosts community and women's events year round. She resides in Sag Harbor with her life-partner Jeri Baldwin.

Contact Dr. Peters at (631)287-8236 for further information on this new campus resource.