Add to ORKG[What follows is an abstract, prepared especially for this Newsletter, of an essay that appears in Female Studies VI—see news briefs for announcement.] In the winter of 1970, an all-university meeting was called to assess interest in a Women\u27s Studies Program. The original group that gathered informally ranged in age from late teens to late forties. Some were on welfare, some gay, some straight, some students, some faculty (female and male), some community women—a composition that has remained typical in both the academic and the operational parts of our program. Our uniqueness stemmed from the amount and kind of student enthusiasm and the direction into which it was and is channelled