Reimagined Women’s Center opens as the Feminist Resource, Education & Empowerment (F.R.E.E) Center

There was a celebratory feel at the official Feminist Resource, Education & Empowerment (F.R.E.E) Center opening ceremonies on Friday, March 1, a daylong event that included a ribbon cutting, a panel discussion and a game night and represented the culmination of three years of work to reimagine Conn’s former Women’s Center.

“This is a labor of love that took over 150 folks across campus to make happen,” said Director of Gender and Sexuality Programs Justin Mendillo ’18.

Connecticut College first introduced the Women’s Center to campus in the 1970s as a reaction to a rapidly changing College environment, which included Conn’s transition to a co-educational institution.

“Women, at that time, had a moment. They said, ‘We want a center for us, to keep the identity of this College for the past [nearly 60] years. And we want to create an activist space,’” said Mendillo.

That desire animates F.R.E.E as well—it will serve as a both a place of refuge and a place to gather in advocacy and activism. However, as Lead Fellow Manuela Monsalve ’25 explained, F.R.E.E isn’t seeking to preserve a changing culture. It’s here to throw open the doors to inclusion.

“I think that is one of the big things. This is a space for everyone,” she said. “Existing in all the spaces we exist in is an act of activism itself. That includes coexistence. You don’t have to identify as a woman to have a place in this space. It’s a place for all of us to celebrate gender identities, all identities, together.”

Mendillo echoed this sentiment during the ribbon-cutting portion of the event.

“We are a feminist space that focuses on feminist praxis. We are a resource for gender identities across the spectrum on campus. We are a space to educate not only our campus community but the larger community,” Mendillo said. “We’re here to empower all of the wonderful trans folks that come through these doors, all the non-binary folks, everybody in our community.”

With a broadened mission, the F.R.E.E Center also needed a new place to call home—one as bright, open and lively as the population it intends to host and support. The new space in the former Smith Dining Hall offers just that, with large windows allowing for plenty of light and a view of Conn’s campus, comfortable furnishings, decorations intended to honor the past and inspire the future, and a variety of complimentary personal hygiene and reproduction-related supplies.

“I feel like there’s a lot of hope in this space,” Monsalve said. “We have a lot of student voices involved. This is a little haven for us to all be together.”