The Student Union is in the final steps of its initiative to provide free menstrual products in select bathrooms across campus, and the initiative is expected to begin next semester. The Union is working on implementing the initiative with Vice President for Campus Operations Jim Gray. 

According to Senator-at-large Richard Kisack Jr. ’19 in an interview with the Justice, menstrual products will be placed in bathrooms in the Goldfarb and Farber Libraries, the Shapiro Campus Center, the Usdan Student Center, Mandel Humanities Quad and the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center. One of the bathrooms with menstrual products will be designated gender-neutral. 

Kisack said that this initiative was first brought to the Student Union by a member of the student body, Lexi Ouellette ’18, in 2016. Representative to the Alumni Board Samantha Barrett ’20 explained that the student’s idea was written into a Senate Money Resolution, which passed. However, there was not enough time before the end of the year to take further action, Barrett said. 

In fall 2017, the Student Union conducted a trial run, purchasing $8,000 worth of menstrual products to place in bathrooms around campus. 

Skyline and Rosenthal Quad Senator Joshua Hoffman ’21 said that the Student Union conducted a survey as a part of that trial run and received over 100 responses. According to Kisack, the survey feedback showed that students would prefer tampons with plastic applicators to those that were available during the trial run, which had cardboard applicators. 

Barrett said that during the trial run, the Union collected data about the number of tampons used and sent that data to Gray. According to Barrett, the Union had been trying since last semester to get a meeting with Gray, and this semester they were finally successful and met with him on Nov. 5. Kisack emphasized that the data from the trial run that they sent to Gray demonstrated a demand for free menstrual products on campus. 

The Union also sent Gray their ideal budget for the program, Kisack said, which is higher than the budget the Union used in the trial run. With additional funding, they intend to purchase higher quality products. 

Kisack explained that the Union wants to pass the financial and managerial responsibilities of the initiative off to the administration by making it a part of the Facilities Services budget. This would mean that Facilities would pay for the program and Facilities employees would monitor the number of menstrual products in each bathroom and restock them as needed. Kisack said that the Union hopes that Facilities will pay for the program to be able to run for at least two semesters. 

“We continue to study this [initiative] with the Union representatives, and we are having a very productive dialogue,” Gray wrote in an email to the Justice. “I hope we have a university funded and operated trial program to roll out starting next semester.”

According to Barrett and Hoffman, the Union struggled with getting an appointment with Gray. After such a long wait to meet with Gray, Hoffman expressed skepticism that the program, now in its third year, would actually be implemented in the spring. “In a perfect world … we should have [menstrual products in] the bathrooms by next spring, but we don’t live in a perfect world,” he said.