The collection contains the administrative and programmatic files of the Center for Women's Studies and Services (CWSS).

Series I: Administrative Files include budget and funding materials, personnel and training materials, grant proposals and research files, reports, newsletters, minutes and notes. The initial founding of the Women's Studies program at San Diego State University and the resulting break is well represented through departmental memos, meeting notes, and correspondence. The original proposal for a women's studies program, and several resulting revisions, is also present. Highlights include syllabi and promotional flyers for the first women's studies courses taught, minutes from the Women's Studies Committee and Women's Studies Board, and documents detailing personnel roles and conflicts within the early department.

Series II: Components Files are comprised of administrative and outreach files maintained by each of the CWSS components (Storefront, Educational and Cultural, Publications, and Feminist Counseling), spanning 1970 to 1986. Nearly complete runs of each of the publications organized by the Publications component are included in this series. Promotional flyers for a wide variety of cultural and educational programs are included, as well as course descriptions for the Feminist Free University for over ten years. The Feminist Counseling component is represented in this series by articles, statements of purpose, and descriptions of the radical feminist counseling concept written by its creators.

Series III: Vertical Files include newsletters, articles, flyers, pamphlets, clippings, reports, brochures, handouts, government publications, statistics, and worksheets on a variety of topics of interest to the Center throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These Vertical Files were compiled and used by staff for consultations, research, and outreach in Center operations.

Series IV: Periodicals holds a strong run of general feminist and activist newspapers, newsletters, and magazines from the 1970s and early 1980s. Local papers, such as Goodbye to All That and Feminist Communications are included in this series, but the strength of the series is the national scope of included publications. Issues and changes within the women's liberation and feminist movements are traceable over time throughout this series. Gay and lesbian issues of the 1970s are well represented by items in the Publications, as are women's health, international women's issues, and workplace rights.

Series V: Reel to Reel Tapes cover a radio series on rape awareness and prevention organized by CWSS in the late 1970s. This radio series featured victim's accounts of their experiences, navigation of the legal system, and cultural analysis, and was also broadcast in a Spanish language version.

Series VI: Scrapbooks include scrapbooks and photographs of events spanning twenty years of the Center's existence. A scrapbook documenting a fire at CWSS headquarters in 1980 is included, as well as one devoted to the Center's involvement in Project Choice.

Series VII: Oversized Materials include a complete run of The Longest Revolution between 1976 and 1983.

Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available here: https://digitalcollections.sdsu.edu/center-for-womens-studies-and-services