TU Student Affairs stocks gender neutral bathrooms with free menstrual products in pilot program
By Isabella Mooney, Contributing Writer
Free menstrual products dispensers have been placed in gender neutral bathrooms on campus as part of a pilot program started by the Towson University Division of Student Affairs.
The initial placement of menstrual products is staying localized to the gender neutral bathrooms on the first floor or main entrance floor of all buildings, Vernon Hurte, vice president of Student Affairs, said in an email Saturday.
The products can be found in the women’s and men’s bathrooms on the same floors in the absence of gender neutral bathrooms.
“We will be able to track use patterns and feedback to determine what other locations will be added in the future,” Hurte said.
He added that the project was inspired by the Student Government Association, which started an advocacy initiative two years ago to make menstrual products available on campus for free. It wasn’t until this year that Student Affairs was able to launch it.
“This is much better than the old system of departments doing it independently,” Jordan Colquitt, SGA president, said of the new program.
Working with Facilities Management, the Center for Student Diversity and the Health Center, menstrual product dispensers were installed before the start of the 2023 fall semester.
However, most students seem to be unaware of their presence on campus.
“I was very surprised to see them,” Hannah Gates, a junior, said. “No one told me they were there.”
The Towson chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America created a work group at the beginning of the fall 2022 semester to supply free period products on campus, according to Dalila Ives, chairperson of the YDSA.
They did independent club fundraising to supply three baskets of menstrual products in the Center for Fine Arts, West Village Commons and the Albert S. Cook Library, she said. One was kept in a gender neutral bathroom and two in women’s bathrooms.
“It should be in the budget just as toilet paper is,” Ives said.
She said she is happy to see the university funding the program, and hopes to see it extended to all bathrooms, including men’s rooms.
Other students seem to be responding positively to the program as well.
“I would have been more excited to transfer if I knew they were there,” Gates said.
She mentioned that the community college she transferred from did not provide period products for free anywhere on campus that she was aware of.
“I think it’s a positive aspect … making sure that people are taken care of on campus,” said Robert Griffin, a freshman.
While the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Resources page on the Towson website lists the locations of the gender neutral bathrooms on campus, it does not tell about the availability of menstrual products in those bathrooms.
Note: A previous edition of this article wrongly listed the buildings the Young Democratic Socialists of America put their baskets in. This has been corrected. The Towerlight regrets this error.
