Update: Since this story was filed, Camosun student Michelle Reed informed Nexus that dispenser machines will be installed in 9 locations across both campuses as early as June, and the products are coming from local environmentally friendly company Joni. Reed says that signage will be placed to advertise the dispenser machines.
As part of a collaborative class assignment, Camosun College students Michelle Reed, Julia Dillon, Roxanne LayCraft, and Steph McAulay have created a petition for access to free menstrual products on both Camosun College campuses.
“We were able to have the opportunity to choose a project to work on and we decided that this was something that all four of us felt very strongly about, that we have to pay for those products,” says Michelle Reed, a student in her second year of the Community, Family, and Child Studies program at Camosun.
The students launched a petition—open to current and former Camosun students—on change.org that they promoted on various social media channels. As of press time, it has received 245 signatures. Realizing that there was a large demand for this, the students sent an email outlining the purpose and goals of the petition to Camosun director of student affairs Evan Hilchey and director of learning services Sybil Harrison. The group has since received a response from Hilchey and Harrison and had a meeting with them on Monday, March 28 to discuss the next steps.
“We’re going to be discussing how this is going to be moving forward and how we’re going to implement this not only at Lansdowne, but at Interurban,” says Reed. “We’re feeling pretty pumped, pretty excited right now that this is actually a reality, it’s going to be happening.”
Reed says that the reason why her group, and other current and former Camosun students, feel so strongly about this is because having access to menstrual products in public restrooms is a basic human right, and that these products should be readily available, for free, just like soap, toilet paper, and paper towels.
“We’re not choosing to have periods every month, this is something that happens to us, just like bodily functions,” she says. “This is something that is a basic human need and a basic right that we should have.”
The group has taken an inclusive approach to the assignment, and aims for these supplies to be offered in all washrooms across both campuses.
“Women aren’t the only people who menstruate. We want to make sure that this is not only in women’s washrooms, but also the non-gender washrooms, and we’d actually like to have them in the men’s washrooms as well,” says Reed. “Somebody who identifies as a man who does not want to go into the other two washrooms, because that is his right, but he is a menstruator, should have the option of being able to have those products accessible to him.”
The students want to see Camosun partner with, and source the menstrual products from, a local, environmentally-friendly company that doesn’t use toxic materials in its products. In terms of where the funds for the initiative will come from, the group ensures that it will not be from student fees, as another large factor in their desire to start the campaign stems from the stress and financial burden that inaccess to menstrual products can have on students.
“We would like money allocated annually from Camosun College’s budget to ensure that these products are well-stocked, and that this money is not taken from student tuition fees, because that is completely going against what we’re wanting to do,” says Reed. “This is something that should be alleviating financial burden for people.”
The group has also sent their email outlining the initiative to BC minister of advanced education and skills training Anne Kang in hopes of seeing a province-wide policy change in post-secondary institutions.