期间项目

This is a story about a student who knows how to rally people around a cause, about the people she set out to help and the ones who had her back along the way. It’s a story about University and student leaders working together to establish a program that will provide free period products in every restroom on campus. In other words, it’s a quintessential OHIO story, and it starts with a quintessential Bobcat.

Senior 梅根处理 is the current president of University Student Senate, 但当我们的故事去年秋天开始时, 她是妇女事务专员. And she was closely tracking a lack of supplies 在 restrooms in Baker University Center.

“为学生做好我们的工作”

Student Senate had committed to providing free period products 在 bathrooms in Baker University Center and parts of Alden 图书馆, 但每次Handle找到这样的产品, 分配器是空的. 她很认真地对待这件事.

Lack of access to period products might seem like a minor inconvenience, but as issues like 贫困的时期 (缺乏获得卫生用品的途径, 经期卫生教育, 厕所, 洗手设施, 或废物管理), 月经股本 (平等和全面地获得经期卫生用品, 以及获得生殖健康教育的权利) 获得牵引力, organizations and governments are beginning to take it seriously, too. Scotland made headlines in 2021 when it became the first country to pass national 立法使经期产品免费. But when Handle first set out to tackle the issue, she didn’t know all of this. 她只知道学生会已经承诺提供这些产品, 而且他们一直未能兑现这一承诺.

“我当时想。, this is something we are saying we're doing and it's not there,Handle说. “我们并没有真正为学生做好我们的工作. 这是怎么回事呢?”

解决问题

一名大四学生 社会工作 在 荣誉导师学院汉德尔在高中时是一名高度参与多项运动的运动员. 她曾发誓要在大学里放松一点, but she found herself tackling the issue of the empty dispensers in a characteristically energetic fashion.

“I started taking pictures every time I went into a bathroom and the dispenser was empty,” she says. “I was texting all my friends: ‘if you ever see an empty dispenser, send me a picture.“我的手机上还有一堆空的自动售货机.”

处理联系 流,阿姨 提供分配器和产品的供应商, for help working up an estimate for increasing supplies and ensuring the dispensers were stocked. 她也开始自己做一些关于经期贫困的研究, a concept Handle found to be under-researched at the time and has since undertaken as part of her senior thesis.

研究表明 that lacking access to period products can have wide-ranging negative impacts on students, 从出勤率下降到学习成绩差. Handle自己的研究表明，在全国范围内, 48%的学生难以负担基本需求, 哪些当然包括月经用品. 许多州(包括俄亥俄州) require that public 6-12 grade schools provide the products, usually upon request. 

“经期贫困对大学生的影响更大, 如果他们来自边缘背景，那就更糟了,Handle说. (作为学费的一部分), 学生们花钱上大学，花钱住在这里, 对食物, 其他被认为是基本需求的东西. They shouldn't have to pay for period products if we say we're supplying them here.”

通过她所说的“令人讨厌的”坚持不懈的努力, Handle had succeeded in getting Facilities to restock the Baker dispensers more often. But by now she had started asking even more questions: Why were the dispensers only in Baker? 为什么学生会是这笔资金的唯一来源?

“[Student Senate] should not be spending all of our budget on something that should just be available” she recalls thinking. “学校应该支持所有学生. 让我们来解决这个问题.”

Handle started preparing to take a big idea to University administration.

两位总统

The president of Student Senate meets regularly with the University president. 在当时的参议院主席戴娜·休克斯的允许下, 汉德尔破坏了2月份的会议，并彻底粉碎了它. Armed with a PowerPoint deck drawing on her research, Handle put her case to the president. 
“It's cheaper to fund every student needing period products than every student needing toilet paper. Comparatively it's not that big…I'm not a math girl, but: take the hit to support your students.”

尽管我不是“数学女孩”,Handle提供了一个预算建议:花费236美元,校园里每个卫生间的自动售货机上都有, 每年投资42美元,000美元来补充产品. It was an effective argument, or at least President Sherman seemed to think so.

“我欣喜若狂，”汉德尔回忆道.

所有的人. 每个人的

在她与谢尔曼总统会面的第二天晚上, Handle presented a five-page legislative document at the Student Senate hearing.

Student Senate rules require that every piece of legislation introduced has a primary sponsor and one secondary sponsor. 第二，这是与任何给定法案相关的发起人的数量. 那天晚上，汉德尔带着43名发起人参加了参议院会议.

“我当时想。, 我去找我所有的朋友, 我认识的所有对月经感到沮丧的人. 所有的人，每个人，”她说. “所有没有月经的人, 如果他们是生理上的男人, 或者我抱怨我来例假的人. 我们也去抓他们吧.”

法案通过了, 而且她已经得到了谢尔曼总统的口头批准, 事情从这里发展得很快.

浴室之旅

Handle参与了整个过程的每一步, which included sitting on the committee that ultimately selected the vendor who would provide the products. They chose Aunt Flow for its inclusive mission and organic products and arranged to have a second vendor help with logistics.

Over the summer, Handle and her mentor, Women’s Center assistant director Dr. 利蒂希娅价格, 一起决定从哪里开始安装, but first they needed to be sure that the dispensers would fit in all the restrooms.

这是一个不太可能的三人组——学生会主席, 妇女中心的副主任, and the director of Facilities Management—came to be walking around campus on a sunny day in September, 轮流搬运一个大的金属周期产品分配器.

They even ran into the University’s new president, Lori Stewart Gonzalez, on College Green.

把柄笑着，回忆着那段经历.

“First of all, I was like, I love that she can recognize me 在 wild! 这让我觉得自己很特别. 我站在莉蒂夏旁边，她拿着这个饮水机. 我当时说，‘我们要来趟厕所之旅. 我们并不奇怪.“我的意思是，也许吧，但这很有趣.”

重要的事情

The “bathroom tour” was productive, and Mack’s team installed dispensers in 15个建筑 在寒假期间. 他们将在未来几个月继续推出. Student Senate and the Women’s Center are planning “period party” to celebrate their success.

“This whole time I've been like, I want to cut a ribbon,Handle说. “我在这个项目上花了一年多的时间，我把它称为我的宝贝. 这是我热衷的项目. 我的整个心和灵魂都投入了这件事. 我想在浴室前面放一条红丝带... 给我一把粉色大剪刀什么的.”

汉德尔说这个项目开始的时候, she expected a much longer timeline—she thought dispensers might be installed a year or two after her own graduation in May 2024. 这个项目的成功给了她一些宝贵的教训.

“You can do big important things that will make change in your community. I think it’s crazy to look back and see all that I was able to accomplish with my people.”