Sacramento State’s pioneer and previous professor of women’s studies Sally Roesch-Wagner will return to campus this week in honor of Women’s HERstory Month at Sac State, and the 35th anniversary of the Women’s Resource Center.

Wagner will be the headliner in the lecture “Activism on Campus in the 1970s.”

Wagner will be joined by former Sac State graduate student Gena Estep Gompert today at 2 p.m., in the University Union’s Hinde Auditorium.

The lecture will include Wagner’s experiences with starting a women’s studies program on campus as well as what was happening around Sac State and in the Sacramento community during the 1970s.

Women’s studies professor Vicki Hall does not think the university would have seen so many changes in the ‘70s if it were not for Wagner’s involvement.

In 1971, Sacramento state became the first state-funded college to have a women’s studies program as well as provide the option of a minor.

“Sally was really pivotal to founding the [Women’s Studies] Program. I doubt that it would’ve happened without her,” Hall said. “She was very much an organizer in the community and I think everything that she did carried this radical vision.”

Wagner, Sac State women and many others throughout the community, fought for a change politically, socially, educationally and economically.

“She (Wagner) was aware of women’s history and that women had no knowledge of it. She, herself, had gone through this process of learning about what women had done and how it had been completely suppressed,” Hall said. “If you don’t have classes, ordinary women will never have any appreciation or concept of what has been done.”

Chris Kent, administrative support coordinator for the PRIDE, Women’s Resource and Multi-Cultural centers, said the activists during that time did not just have focus on creating an academic program.

“There was a group on campus called the Women’s Caucus; they were fighting for a dedicated space for women and that went on to become the Women’s Resource Center,” Kent said. “Their movement focused on welfare and reproductive rights for women.”

In addition to the lecture, there will also be an accompanying exhibit that can be found on the escalator landing on the second floor of the library.

Julie Thomas, the special collections and manuscripts librarian, has been combing through archives for the past month to produce an exhibit dedicated to the activism Wagner was a part of.

“Up until the mid-70s, it was against the law for unmarried women to have contraceptives. If they found a woman with a diaphragm, she could be put in jail,” Thomas said. “These are things that women now take as a right. This is what they fought for.”

The lecture and exhibit are meant to give people a better understanding of how important this period was for not only women, but for the Sac State campus as a whole.

“So many of these issues are relevant today and we want a dialogue to start,” Thomas said. “Think about what’s happening today and let’s start a dialogue. That’s what (Wagner) is going to be talking about – what was activism and what is the legacy today.”

Following the lecture, the Women’s Studies department will be holding a reception from 4-5 p.m. in the Multi-Cultural Center located in Room 1010 of the Library.

Anisca Miles can be reached at [email protected]