We, students from Brandeis Students for Reproductive Justice, Brandeis FMLA, Student Union Campus Operations Working Group, Student Union Social Justice and Diversity Committee and individual students, continue to work to facilitate a meaningful dialogue with the Brandeis administration in response to student support for free menstrual products on the Brandeis campus.
Over the past three weeks, we created a survey to gauge students’ views on menstrual product use, availability and pricing on campus. We found that the quality of products available, inconsistent pricing and availability and financial insecurity were all factors that students cited as inhibiting them from getting the care they needed during menstruation. It seems clear that the way forward is through an open, engaging dialogue with the Brandeis administration to address positive steps forward for free and subsidized menstrual products.
We are inspired by efforts around the country, from public high schools to private universities, to destigmatize conversations about menstruation and to address the community need for awareness and menstrual product availability. The overwhelming affirmative response to the question asked of this campus, “Could a campaign to establish the need for free menstrual products be possible?” drives this effort. Our goals reflect the conversations, the newspaper articles and the administration acknowledgement that has made our work up to this point possible.
Our goals in the coming week are to analyze the 455 responses that were collected from the members of the Brandeis student body who menstruate and to turn this data into suggestions and proposals for the Brandeis administration to consider in response to the student support for free menstrual products on campus. In these suggestions, we hope to characterize the survey responses in a way that highlights the honesty, engagement and genuine interest members of our community have in seeing free menstrual products at Brandeis.
We are thankful for the support and willingness to participate in our actions thus far and encourage all students or student groups interested in supporting this effort to reach out to Brandeis Students for Reproductive Justice, Brandeis FMLA, Student Union Campus Operations Working Group and the Student Union Social Justice and Diversity Committee to learn more about the ways that you can help or get involved.
We continue to move forward with this project with the hopes that the administration works to accommodate the expressed student need. Thank you for helping us bring that need to the table.
Signed in Solidarity By: David Herbstritt: President of the Student Union, Shaquan McDowell: COW-G Committee Chair, Jacob Edelman: Communications Director of the Student Union, Michelle Jimenez: Social Justice and Diversity Committee Chair, Brandeis FMLA, TRON, Brandeis Firecrackers, Brandeis Pro-Choice, Brandeis Latinx Student Organization-BLSO, Brandeis Korean Student Association-BKSA, Taiwanese Students Association-TSA, Brandeis Ensemble Theater-BET, Boris’ Kitchen, Bad Grammer, Triskelion, Divanna Eckels, Ari Keigan, José Castellanos, Aaron Finkel, Julia Ryan, Henry McDonald, Leah Levine, Guthrie Diamond, Brandis Whitfield, Gianna Petrillo, Otis Fuqua, Brianna Silverman, Avery Finkel, Ruby Macsai-Goren, Santiago Montoya Palacios, Emily Galloway, Amy-Claire Dauphin, Sarah Khimjee, Sophie Warren, Zoe Bleicher, Lauren Puglisi, Charlotte Lang, Elana Kennedy, Yvonna D. Roderick, Nhi Tran, Gabby Calcano, Jessica Huynh, Meghan Hickey, Hin Hon (Jamie) Wong, Janice Nam, Ruth Galaviz, Anwesha Ghosh, Serena Shen, Zainab Jafari, Mercedes Hall (Women of Color Alliance), Tannie Tang, Claire Pocius, Atticus Ranck, Karen Seymour, Krista Hu, Gabriel Sol Fontes, Dylan Hoffman, Elba Valerio, Hauke Ziessler, Gilberto Calderin, Karina Meythaler, Kyla Graves, Priya DeBerry, Mrudula Gadgil, Maurice Windley, Ruth Messele, Emily Wu (Brandeis Diversity Conference)
