ABIGAIL JACOBSON
Asst. News Editor
You’re walking to your class that’s located in Thompson Hall, when you feel it.
If you’re someone who uses menstrual items then you know exactly what that feeling is.
If you don’t, the best way I can describe it is where your stomach has this weird pain. For me, it feels like someone hits me with a baseball bat.
You can call it whatever you want. The time of the month. Aunt Flo. Shark week, whatever.
However, every person experiences their period differently.
Everyone uses different menstrual items. There’s pads, tampons, menstrual cups, period underwear and so much more!
Why is this important to SUNY Fredonia?
Because SUNY Fredonia does not offer menstrual items in the bathrooms for their students and faculty.
If they do, then I assume they are invisible.
I think not supplying the bathrooms with menstrual items is wrong and unacceptable.
According to the Student Demographics Fall 2023 on the Fredonia website, the undergraduate women on campus are more than half percent. SUNY Fredonia undergraduate women hold 57.6% of the entire headcount as of Fall 2023.
Comparatively, SUNY Fredonia graduate women hold 76.4% of the entire graduate headcount as of Fall 2023.
The SUNY Fredonia campus is made up of mainly women, so why does SUNY Fredonia not offer menstrual items to women and others on the SUNY Fredonia campus?
That is the big question.
I see more condoms and lube given out on campus than I do menstrual items.
SUNY Fredonia should provide those who experience periods menstrual and sanitary pads.
On April 25, 2023, The State Univeristy of New York (SUNY) provided a memorandum of support. The subject was of A.4060/S.5910, which says it “amends the public health law, in relation to requiring menstrual products in public colleges and universities.”
In this memorandum of support, menstrual items are considered a fundamental necessity and should be supplied and stocked just as toilet paper and soap is.
Now yes, menstrual items are not free. However, considering a majority of SUNY Fredonia student’s are women (who I assume experience periods) then there should be no question in providing students with menstrual items.
I reached out to a few students from other schools for their input.
Abigail Starkweather, a student from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), gave me her input on RIT supplying menstrual items.
“I would say a decent amount [of places] on campus do have little baskets with pads and tampons in them,” said Starkweather.
According to RIT, they had 6,987 female students in Fall 2022. Considering that RIT has a more male-dominated student body, they still provide baskets of pads and tampons for their female and period-experiencing students.
Kristina Foster, a student from SUNY Oswego, provided me with how her school provides menstrual items.
“They have pads and tampons in the women’s bathrooms,” said Foster. “They just started putting them in the men’s bathrooms as well, which people are unhappy about.”
Having a period is quite the experience and in my opinion, it’s a struggle. I think many other people can agree.
“It’s really good for people to have access to free period products,” said Foster. “It’s a hidden struggle that’s not really talked about and it’s important for a lot of people.”
In Fall 2022, SUNY Oswego’s female student population was more than half. The female population was 52%, while the male population was 48%.
This brings a question to attention: Why do other SUNY schools provide menstrual items while Fredonia does not?
From what I’ve seen around the women’s bathrooms on campus, there are no menstrual items anywhere. If there are some in the bathroom, I only see an empty bag or basket.
The only areas on campus I have seen menstrual items are in Gregory Hall and Fenton Hall, both of which have, at most, two menstrual items.
I believe SUNY Fredonia should supply free menstrual items in the women and men’s bathrooms on campus.
As a woman myself, this is an extremely important topic to me. Considering I have and still do experience periods, having to have a full-blown search for a pad or tampon in my bookbag or even rolling a bunch of toilet paper up, is not a fun time.
If SUNY Fredonia supplies free menstrual items in every bathroom on campus, I can guarantee many students and faculty would appreciate it.