The national Her Campus logo.
HERCAMPUS.COM / COURTESY
By Barbara Vasquez, Asst. Production Editor
Manhattan University’s Her Campus chapter is returning to the college this semester, thanks to a new campus coordinator who’s taking on the challenge of reigniting the chapter.
Her Campus is a media platform that offers female-identifying college students the opportunity to write and connect with other students around the globe.
“Her Campus is founded by college women, it’s for college students and it’s a leading media platform,” said Deirdre O’Leary, Ph.D., the faculty advisor for MU’s chapter. “It’s really designed to uplift and prioritize women’s voices and women’s issues on college campuses.”
O’Leary has been serving as faculty advisor for the group for a number of years now, and has seen it at its best and worst. She expressed her faith in new campus coordinator, Allyson Haskins, to bring the organization back and have it running full time once again.
“I just had a meeting with Ally about a week ago and she really is hitting the ground running,” O’Leary said. “Ally is one of those people who, if you want something done, ask a busy person and they’ll get it done. I think she’ll do great things.”
Haskins, a sophomore marketing and communication major, has been writing for Her Campus since her freshman year at the university.
“When I joined Her Campus it was super nice because it was an outlet where I could talk about things that most people considered ‘too feminine’,” Haskins said. “And I fell in love with it because it never felt like something that was taking time out of my day. It was adding to my life.”
When the organization lost its previous campus coordinator, the chapter’s status at MU was in jeopardy and members were unsure of its standing at the university. Haskins, saddened by the loss of Her Campus, took things into her own hands to revive it.
“Once it ended up dying off a little bit, I was really upset because I was looking forward to it so much,” Haskins said. “It was just such a fun thing in my life that I loved. I felt so passionate about it, and I knew so many other girls did too, so the second I saw that there was an opening to revive it I immediately wanted to take it.”
Since the group isn’t innately tied to MU, some hardships have arisen with its newfound revival.
“It’s been really difficult because there’s a lot of structure that wasn’t there with the school, since we are from a different HQ,” Haskins said. “I’ve been working to try and connect it back more with the school, because it makes it so much easier with organizing events.”
Alongside adding structure to the group, Haskins has also recruited a number of new members and has even added some to their E-Board for the year.
Irene Papakanakis, the creative and editorial director for Her Campus, thinks that the new board will work to help the future of the group.
“I like the fact that we have new faces and new voices to help with the revival, because we’re almost starting from scratch,” Papakanakis said. “We’re trying to make the club bigger, get more involved, get more events and just make it a bigger thing on campus… I feel like a lot of us [previous members] are used to the old way, but getting new voices to say ‘Let’s take your mindset away from that,’ can really help.”
Papakanakis, who expressed her desire to expand Her Campus’ impact at MU, cited this as one of the reasons she transitioned from her role as a writer last year to take on a position on the group’s executive board.
“I realized I wanted to help make the club bigger on campus and get more people involved,” Papakanakis said. “I actually really enjoyed being a member and writing for it, so I thought why not help other people get interested in writing, help other people join, publicize the magazine and take on that larger role.”
As for the role the group serves on campus, Papakanakis noted it’s an important vessel in which students can facilitate their creativity and find community.
“I think that it’s great especially since it’s a women’s magazine,” Papakanakis said. “I feel like women’s voices are always not heard or even suppressed a bit, but having this outlet and having it recognized at our university is great. And within the group itself, we have formed such a great community, almost like a sisterhood. You make really great friends this way, and I love that.”
O’Leary also commented on the contributions students across various disciplines have made to Her Campus.
“One of the great things about a platform like Her Campus is it draws writing and contributions from students from all the schools,” O’Leary said. “I know that they [MU’s Her Campus chapter] have engineering students writing for them, business students, English students, other liberal arts majors, science students, writing is done by all majors at Manhattan College [University]. It’s really wonderful to have organizations and platforms like Her Campus that showcase student writing but aren’t exclusive to one school or major.”
The new and improved Her Campus holds a lot of potential, which Haskins told The Quadrangle includes potential partnerships and collaborations within and outside the university. To hear more updates about the group, follow their instagram @hercampusmu_, or check out their articles here.