There comes a time in most women’s lives when they find themselves on their period with no supplies on hand. Sure, many public restrooms have coin-operated machines that dispense single tampons, but most people, especially students today, don’t carry around coin purses anymore. Trans men who either haven’t medically transitioned or don’t plan on medically transitioning face these same issues, except they don’t even have the opportunity to go digging through their book bag for loose change, as men’s restrooms don’t typically carry menstrual products.
To address this issue, Oregon is leading the movement in making menstrual products free in school bathrooms through the signing of HB 3294. According to the bill’s text, “each public education provider shall ensure that both tampons and sanitary pads are available at no cost to students through dispensers located in every student bathroom of every public school building.” It’s important to note that this includes men’s, women’s and gender neutral bathrooms alike so that all students, no matter their identity, may access menstrual products.
The situation was declared an emergency, effective July 1, 2021, in order to expedite the legislative process of implementing a bill. However, public schools do not need to meet the bill’s requirements until July 1.
So far, UO has made little progress towards the goal.
I went into 37 restrooms on campus in 19 different school buildings. There were no menstrual supplies available in any mens restroom that I entered, and they were only available in gender neutral (also referred to as “all gender”) restrooms in buildings that didn’t have a women’s restroom. None of the available menstrual supplies were free, but rather sat behind a 25 cent paywall.
Take Global Scholars Hall for example. Despite also serving as a residential building, GSH does qualify as a school building as defined by HB 3294, and yet all three of the publicly accessible bathrooms — men’s, women’s and gender neutral — lack free menstrual products. In fact, they lack menstrual products in general.
Free menstrual products were made available in women’s and gender neutral restrooms in the EMU in the fall of 2020, and they can also be found in the Rec Center or the Women’s Center on campus. However, if you’re looking to find a tampon or pad in a Condon Hall restroom, you are out of luck.
Students have been spearheading the charge for menstrual accessibility on campus for years now. Boochie Post, president and co-founder of the Flow Organization, a university club that focuses on destigmatizing menstruation and ending period poverty, spoke on the student initiative and the implementation of HB 3294.
“The period products for free in the EMU were installed because of a project that two female ASUO executives carried out,” Post said. “I think it’s going to take pressure from the students to get administration to actually get the free period products in all the restrooms.”
Post’s concern is related to the fact many of UO’s top administrators don’t menstruate, which may lead to a lack of understanding of the importance of free menstrual products being available anywhere on campus.
Due to the title of “feminine hygiene products,” even being referred to as such in HB 3294’s text, people often consider menstruation to be a women’s issue rather than a human issue. However, not everyone who menstruates is a woman, and not every woman menstruates, making gender an arbitrary requirement for product placement in restrooms.
There is good news on the way, though. According to Saul Hubbard, media and communications manager for UO, the 25 cent paywall will not be in place for much longer.
“Vending machines in some female and all-gender restrooms on campus have been converted to dispense free menstrual products,” Hubbard said. “The university is working to expand availability further and ensure we are in full compliance with all the state requirements resulting from HB 3294.”
The university still has four months before the requirements detailed in HB 3294 must be implemented, and though I am unaware of UO’s timeline for action, I am hopeful it will make the changes necessary to support its students in accordance with the law.
While I wish the university came to the conclusion that these products needed to be made free on its own, I am exceptionally grateful the Oregon government has made their availability a requirement by law to help menstruators facing costs non-menstruators don’t have to bear. Menstruation is a biological process that is simply part of the body’s functionality, not a choice someone makes at age 11 — they shouldn’t be billed for it by the school or by society.
