On-campus groups provide free menstrual products where the University does not

When UNC master’s student Katherine Snow Smith surveyed 100 female undergraduate students in February about their experience with menstrual products on campus for her capstone project, over half of them said they had never seen menstrual products available on campus. Seven said they had missed class because they could not find a menstrual product in their building.

According to University Media Relations, UNC Housekeeping Services stocks all bathrooms in 192 campus buildings with toilet paper and paper towels. They stock zero of those bathrooms with menstrual products, despite the fact that 60.4 percent of undergraduates and 60.1 percent of graduate students at the University identified as female in a 2022 breakdown of the student population. 

“I think the common comparison I’ve seen is that we don’t withhold toilet paper from public bathrooms,” Makayla Hipke, the director of content strategy and a master’s student at the UNC School of Government, said. “These hygiene products are just as important to function in our daily lives.”

In November, Hipke initiated a pilot program that provides menstrual products in seven locations within the government school. Partnering alongside staff and faculty volunteers, she said they distributed about 350 products so far.

Hipke said the volunteers began with a proposal for the school's wellness committee to fund stocking a limited number of locations with menstrual products. The committee allocated $279 from its budget to purchase supplies and plastic baskets.

“I don’t think that anybody should be limited from participating in life — and in life at the University — because either they can’t afford it or even just on a given day don’t have access to the products that they need,” Hipke said.

Media Relations said they are aware of free menstrual products located at the Carolina Union, Campus Y, Student Wellness, Student Affairs Services Building and the Dean of Students' Office, as well as in residence halls, due to the UNC Residence Hall Association’s free period product initiative.

Lois Boynton, an associate professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, started a donation initiative among Hussman faculty and staff in 2022 to supply menstrual products in the bathrooms of Carroll Hall and Curtis Media Center. She said her efforts have been well-received and that the products "go very quickly."

“If it is something that ends up being supplied by the university — great," Boynton said. "But if it’s not, I’ll help out however I can."

Using a $1,500 grant from the Robert E. Bryan Fellowship and a $600 grant from the Campus Y spring fund, a group of four undergraduate students — including UNC junior Cynthia Tran — started the Flow Forward research initiative this semester. Flow Forward distributes menstrual products biweekly to 31 bathrooms in 18 buildings on campus, and Tran said the group exhausted their funds.

“I feel like [$1,500] is literally pocket change for the University,” Tran said.

The funding of paper towels and toilet paper in campus buildings costs approximately $240,000 annually, Media Relations said, which generally comes from state and auxiliary funding. This does not include housekeeping supplies for residence halls, which is budgeted through Carolina Housing, or certain campus buildings that provide their own housekeeping services, such as the Carolina Union.

UNC senior and Flow Forward co-founder Boris Torres said the period products provided in some spaces are of a lower quality. The Student Union spends around 15 cents per product, while Flow Forward spends about 25 cents per product they purchase, which he said allows them to buy higher quality products that are also biodegradable.

“If we can demonstrate that we can uphold it for a semester and keep them restocked, create data from that research and present it to administration, it almost feels like we’ve done everything they need,” Tran said. “All they have to do is implement it.”

According to Media Relations, individual units of the University separately handle menstrual product purchasing and distribution, so UNC Finance and Operations does not have access to the data that breaks down the quantity purchased or spent on these items. 

They said there is not currently a plan to centrally fund menstrual products on campus.

“I think it’s going to take students, I guess, really demonstrating the need for this — and the benefits of providing it — to the administration,” Smith said.

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