By Michele Richinick

On the heels of federal funding denials, the program coordinator for the Campus Center on Violence Against Women recently resigned.

The center is a federally funded program, said Claire Harwell, the center’s former program coordinator who resigned, effective last Friday.

During the summer, the center applied for additional federal funding for the future, and the grant manager at the Department of Justice notified the center that they would be refunded, she said. Members of the center then found out they weren’t going to be funded because of factors like the geographical location of the center, she said.

The grant is competitive, so the denial of the grant to the center was not about the center’s performance, Harwell said.

“We are at a moment in the program where we need the university to assume complete responsibility for it and place it in the framework of the part of the university where it can have the most impact on students’ lives,” Harwell said.

The center has funding through June 2009, Harwell said.

“From now until June we really need the campus community to step in