Despite its name, the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center wants students to know it provides for all kinds of students.

The Sloss House will be holding an open house Monday through Friday this week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students will be able to see for themselves what goes on in the women’s center. Volunteers at the Sloss House will be giving tours and talking to students about what the center can provide.

“We’re trying something new this year: to make it a longer event — a longer window of opportunity,” said Penny Rice, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center. “People can come in at any time and pick up the information, and if they want to talk to us, they can.”

The house provides information for the Assault Care Center Extended Shelter and Support, LGBT student services, YWCA programs and much more. She said a few campus groups, such as the Vagina Warriors, also hold meetings in the house.

Rice said the house is not only used for campus organizations, but many students use it as a place to relax as well.

“People don’t realize just all that we have to offer,” said Aly Peeler, senior in history and volunteer at the Sloss House. “It’s a comfortable place to sit, do homework, study, meet with friends and have groups meet. We have a little library that has great books that you can check out.”

The house has a bulletin board covered with postcards, much like the PostSecret Web site, called “Secret Agents.” Anyone can anonymously write a thought or secret on a postcard and submit it to be put up on the bulletin board. Readers are allowed to write comments beside the posted cards. A journal full of student entries dating back to fall 2000 lies on a table in the living room.

Rice said the main hope is to help the writers through rough times in their lives and make them feel more connected to others.

“It’s a great way for people to feel … that they’re not the only ones experiencing it,” Rice said.

Unfortunately, she said, many students are intimidated by Sloss House’s architecture.

“One of the hardest things about the Sloss House is that people don’t know if they can come inside or not. It looks like someone’s home, and when you walk in it still looks like someone’s home,” Rice said. “Since all of our offices are up on the second floor, people still don’t know if they should be there.”

Anasia Sturdivant, senior in sociology, also a volunteer at the house, said other students are intimidated by the title “women’s center.”

“They stay away from it, thinking it’s some feminist movement that’s going to go burning bras or something, when it’s really just a major resource center,” Sturdivant said. “No one talks about it. You just walk by it and keep looking at it.”

Although the Sloss House’s main focus may be on women, it has become more of an equality center than anything else, Sturdivant said. She said LGBT students are invited to explore the house, and men are just as welcome.

“If we help men understand women better, we help women,” Rice said.

The Sloss House is open during the fall semester from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Students, staff and faculty are invited to use the facility downstairs anytime between those hours.

“It’s just a really wonderful resource, and I feel like we’re in the middle of campus and people don’t realize we’re here,” Peeler said, “which is kind of why we’re doing the open house, so people will know what we’re about.”