Salem Branch Strategic Plan 2008-2010

Branch Plan Click here to see the new branch leadership plan utlilizing a team management model.

Salem Branch History

Miss Frances Richards, Willamette University Dean of Women, founded Salem Branch in Lausanne Residence Hall on October 21, 1922.  This was a "town and gown" alliance with 44 colleagues and community members who shared an interest in furthering scholarships for women, cultural affairs, access to quality education, community service, and international relations.

Education was and is the primary focus for Salem Branch.  AAUW of Oregon and Salem Branch began lobbying for public school kindergarten in 1926. Before they finally became a reality in 1981, the Salem Branch established the parent cooperative "Happytime Nursery School and Kindergarten" which operated for decades.  Lobbying for funding and improvements in the public schools and higher education system continues.  Women now attend in equal or greater number than men on college campuses in the US.

Salem Branch has sponsored foreign films, Pentacle Theater play, and Children's Theater, and for 38 years a "Christmas Musicale" featuring local artists. Salem AAUW has held the "Midsummer Night's Musicale" gourmet picnic on the banks of the Millstream Creek at WIllamette University followed by a concert since the 1980's.

The proceeds from fundraisers support AAUW's Educational Foundation www.aauw.org/ef Legal Advocacy Fund www.aauw.org/laf and community service partners that include Family Building Blocks, HOME, Salem Speaks Up, the Annual Peace Lecture, and Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics Career Conference for Middle School Girls.  See our Community Projects page on this website for more information.

Salem Branch played a pivotal role in Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus research published by the Educational Foundation in January 2006. Chemeketa Community College was awarded a grant to do an online survey about the prevalance, type and reaction to sexual harassment. The Educational Foundation will use the data to develop campus training manuals to educate students and faculty about ways to recognize, respond to, and eliminate sexual harassment. www.aauw.org/research/

International relations has been an annual area of study and action led by Dorothy Patch who started the first Great Decisions group in Oregon.  Recent topics have included Muslim women, immigration issues, China's economic impact worldwide, and the relevance of the United Nations.

All of these endeavors build on the founding mission of AAUW, to help women gain access to higher education, and to achieve the yet-to-realized goal of equity for all women and girls.  Salem AAUW cherishes the past and embraces the new Association mission statement:

AAUW promotes equity for women and girls

through education, advocacy and research.

Public policy has been a cornerstone of AAUW member involvement since its founding in 1881. Child labor and access to public education were among the first issues the early AAUW members studied and worked toward.  Today's issues include access to health care, pay equity, sexual harassment, protection of Title IX, and protecting social security benefits for women and children. AAUW resources include the Woman to Woman voter turn-out manual, Pay Equity manual, online RSS feeds, emailed Washington Update, Mission and Action and One-Minute Activist. For a more complete list and ways you can learn more about the issues and ways to affect change, check the Association website www.aauw.org/ ADVOCACY button. 

Research projects have put the AAUW Educational Foundation on the map starting with the 1985 study that revealed teachers were unintentionally giving preferential treatment to boys in classroom. Hostile Hallways highlighted the covert and overt ways that girls were threatened in school and the lack of resolution available to those who raised the issue.  Pay inequity was highlighted in the 2007 "Behind the Pay Gap" projects that concluded women make less money than men with the same job description beginning in their first years after college graduation.  www.aauw.org RESEARCH button

Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus was published in 2006 with support of a $100,000 donation from the AAUW of Oregon. It stated that over one-third of college students have experienced sexual harassment. Colleges in Oregon developed written standards of behavior and dispute resolution as a result of the governor's reaction to reported sexual misconduct on Oregon campuses.

AAUW of Oregon promotes AAUW projects and issues through leadership training, legislative work and ongoing electronic and live communication. www.aauw-oregon.org Our state has 28 branches: Albany, Ashland, Astoria, Baker, Beaverton, Bend, Corvallis, Curry County, Eugene-Lane, Grants Pass, Gresham, Hillsboro/Forest Grove, Klamath Falls, Lake Oswego, Lakeview, Lincoln City, Medford, Pendleton, Portland, Redmond, Roseburg, Salem, Seaside, The Dalles, TIgard, Tillamook, Wallowa County, and one satellite branch, Ontario, and one electronic, Oregon Online Branch.

International Connections are growing to help women around the worldeach year. Current alliances are with CARE, One Shared World, http://www.aauw.org/About/international_corner/OneSharedWorld.cfm Imagining Ourselves www.imow.org  and the Women Graduates-USA www.wg-usa.org non-profit organizations. For more, see the Association website, ABOUT AAUW button, International Corner.