Roli Wendorf
NYS Legal Advocacy Fund Vice President

AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund Campus Outreach Program

History
The AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund launched its campus outreach initiative to

• Educate students and staff about sex discrimination issues.
• Share ways to address and prevent sex discrimination.
• Provide action steps toward creating a more equitable campus climate. 

Virginia Tech hosted the first campus outreach program in 1997. LAF staff and leaders worked with school administrators to present Sex, Lies, and Lawsuits, a seminar for students and faculty, which was marketed as part of Virginia Tech's Women's Month. Since then, LAF has presented programs on more than 20 campuses, among them UCLA, Boston College, Stanford University, Michigan State University, the University of Southern Florida, Harvard University, North Carolina State University, Wayne State College, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Rochester, Columbia University, the University of Redlands, Eastern Washington University, and the University of Virginia.

Through the LAF Campus Outreach Program, AAUW members can receive funding and LAF staff support to implement a gender equity-focused program or event at their local college or university. Topics for campus outreach may include: sexual harassment on campus, sexual assault on campus, equal pay and preparing for the workplace, Title IX in the context of athletics or women in nontraditional fields, and tenure issues for faculty. 

If you have a program or event in mind, please download and fill out the LAF Campus Outreach Funding Request Form and submit it to: laf@aauw.org or fax to: 202-463-7169.

This will be a shift for LAF, which has focused more on deserving individuals than on landmark cases with the potential to make a difference for all women. It is clear that AAUW has always had a powerful voice in the sex discrimination arena, and we need to use it to reinforce cases that will hold our ground and lead us forward.