Student Government Association (SGA) Parliamentarian Katelyn Hicken wants SGA to recommend the creation of a student organization that will advocate for free menstrual products on UT Tyler’s campus.
Hicken said she believes the issue is important given that most of UT Tyler students are female and that SGA is one of the best places to about what students want since its members represent the student body.
“You represent the students,” she told members in its Wednesday, Oct. 18 meeting. “Things are going to have to start here.”
SGA voted to table the discussion until it could receive more information and potentially hear from an organizational representative who may speak to SGA by video conference in the coming weeks.
Why
For Hicken, free access to menstrual products is as natural as free toilet paper.
“Feminine hygiene products are expensive and hard to keep track of and we wouldn’t expect people to pay for or bring their own toilet paper as using the restroom,” she said in an interview.
“Women on our campus should not have to go on a scavenger hunt to find feminine hygiene products if, for example, they forgot to bring one with them and they’re stuck on campus for a long time,” she said.
“UT Tyler is over 50% female. It’s clearly an issue that affects a majority of our students,” she said.
Though PERIOD calls for campus chapters to seek for administration to provide funding for hygiene products, Hicken sees the products to come through private donations and national affiliation.
“Tackling this issue this way takes the financial burden of it off the shoulders of administration or the Student Government Association. Any funding associated would come from donations or through the resources provided from the national organization,” she said.
Campus Impact
The student organization Hicken wants SGA to recommend students create is called PERIOD, an international non-profit organization, which advocates for menstrual care as a basic right, according to its website.
The student organization would be a local chapter of the broader organization, like College Republicans or Peers Against Tobacco.
According to PERIOD’s website, chapters sometimes conduct menstrual product drives where they collect product donations from business sponsors.
However, the main objective of campus chapters, according to its Chapter Playbook, is to get the University to pay for free menstrual products.
“We are encouraging YOU to reach out to your administration and advocate for them to provide free tampons and pads in all of the campus restrooms and public facilities,” it reads.
It also lobbies state representatives to abolish the state sales tax on tampons and pads and to provide free menstrual and hygiene products in public restrooms. It also educates about menstrual hygiene.
“The silence surrounding menstruation has resulted in a financial misogyny in which menstrual products are charged – a price that individuals below the poverty line cannot afford,” the Campus Playbook reads. “These necessities should be offered freely, just as toilet paper is in all public facilities.”
According to Hicken, PERIOD is already active at other UT System schools, such as UT Austin and UT Dallas and lobbies administration to implement favorable policy on campus.
Twitter: @jhescock
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