On Dec. 4, the Undergraduate Student Government at Princeton University began a new free menstrual product program, according to The Daily Princetonian.
This program is not the first of its kind, and similar programs have been successful at universities like Brown University, Cornell University and Columbia University.
Although the program is currently located only in one building, student government leaders hope that data from this pilot program will pave the way for long-term, campus-wide free menstrual products.
The student government plans to bring both the data from their program and an anonymous survey about the number of products students actually use to the Office of Campus Life next semester to help further the discussion on campus.
There has been some controversy over the location of the menstrual products, though. The program originally placed a basket of tampons and pads in four women’s restrooms, four men’s restrooms and one gender-neutral restroom. Members of the Princeton community continually removed the products from the men’s restrooms.
To combat the confusion, the student government added a poster to the basket that said the project wanted to include all people on Princeton’s campus who menstruate. However, these signs were also anonymously removed from the restrooms.
Students in the student government were unsure how to interpret these acts, and decided to use the remaining funds to make free menstrual products available in the student government office.
Despite this controversy, students remain confident that this is a need on campus, and plan to bring the findings to the administration.
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