Students push CNU for free menstrual products at school bathrooms to end "period poverty"

A group of students at Christopher Newport University is pushing school leaders to provide free menstrual products on campus.

The school's chapter of PERIOD, a national nonprofit that advocates for women on menstrual issues, has started a petition that calls on the university to provide what they argue are basic necessities and "end period poverty." It had 351 signatures as of Monday morning.

"Interrupted studies. Missed classes. Stunted education," reads the petition. "This is the reality for so many students who menstruate, simply because they lack access to readily available and affordable period products."

Rachel Applebach, a 20-year-old junior studying English literature and the chapter's distribution manager, said she's often approached by "other menstruators in a bind" on campus, saying, "Hey, this is really embarrassing but I need some kind of (period) product, can you help me?"

"That's just a really common experience here," Applebach said. "No one should have to experience that."

The push is part of a national campaign called United for Access from PERIOD and THINX, which manufactures "period-proof underwear," and extends to schools in places including Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.

The University of California, Davis, and the University of Texas at Austin have had victories so far, said Anna Zuccaro, a public relations consultant with the campaign.

There have been "more public spaces (recently) to discuss things like menstrual health," Zuccaro said. "Organizations like PERIOD have filled that space. This (topic) shouldn't be stigmatized, shouldn't be taboo when it happens to more than half the population."

Momentum has grown in recent years pushing public officials to nix obstacles to women getting menstrual products, including efforts to exclude the items from state taxes. Such a bill failed in Virginia at the most recent General Assembly session, but legislators did vote to require that jails and prisons provide products for inmates at no cost.

In an emailed statement, Christopher Newport spokesman Jim Hanchett said the issue "hasn't previously surfaced" on campus.

"Christopher Newport University welcomes a conversation about this with our students and student organizations and we welcome their ideas about innovative, effective strategies for meeting this need," he said in the email.

It's unclear how much it would cost to provide the products at CNU, a public university with 5,000 students.

Applebach said the PERIOD chapter wants the products placed in women's bathrooms at the library and in the first floor of academic buildings where classes are held, to start. Eventually she'd like to see the school put them in all women's bathrooms. They're hoping to meet with campus clubs, sororities, student leadership and the dean of students to broach the issue.

The organization is also working with the menstrual product company Aunt Flow to price-match whatever products the university would choose, Applebach said, to ensure those offered are quality and sustainable.

"I know as students, we're pretty much always crunched for money — thank you, tuition," she said. "That goes further into girls getting stuck with no period products onsite."

The petition notes every school bathroom provides toilet paper and soap "as basic necessities for natural bodily functions."

"People should start considering menstrual products as a basic necessity," Applebach said. "No student deserves to feel embarrassed about or caught off guard about" this.

I had heard of the situation in the developing world, and that’s the first thing I thought of when I read this. I assumed they had some way to deal with the issue, even if it is not what is considered the modern way.

Every woman I have known well enough to know such personal habits has always bought her own feminine products and kept some in her purse just in case. When I was a kid, I ran errands for the neighbor lady and purchased them for her before I even knew what they were for. I’ve heard that there are vending machines in some women’s restrooms. None of these women were/are of exception means, yet all have been able to provide the products for themselves without any hardship.

You are correct about the gender-confusion issue and the privacy of women. I don’t know how women, or the parents of girls, let these intrusions stand. A couple of times at our local Target, I have seen a person who is obviously a man dressed in women’s clothing. I always alert my wife about him in case she needs to use the restroom. Ad a man, I don’t care for the intrusion of “transgender men” in restrooms or locker rooms either, and I have read of cases where schoolboys who have this inflicted on them also don’t care for it.

Did you notice how the free products advocates here never use the terms “feminine hygiene products” or “women”? It’s always “menstrual products” and “persons who menstruate.” I guess that’s to be inclusive of “men” who menstruate, or people who identify with neither sex who menstruate.

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