A container of free menstrual products sits on a women’s bathroom countertop in Talley Student Union on Wednesday. They are the result of a campaign led by Student Body Vice President Mia Connell." />
Jessica Hernandez
A container of free menstrual products sits on a women’s bathroom countertop in Talley Student Union on Wednesday. They are the result of a campaign led by Student Body Vice President Mia Connell.
After launching its pilot program during the 97th session of Student Government, ‘We Bleed Red’ will be continuing its efforts into the next academic year by fundraising the money for menstrual products after losing its funding from the Student Government budget.
‘We Bleed Red’, formerly known as ‘Pack Bleeds Red’, is an initiative enacted on campus this past academic year offering free menstrual products in Talley Student Union bathrooms. The program gained traction when graduate student Jasmine Park proposed the concept and received $1600 to allocate to the program. Mia Connell, a third-year studying sociology, officially implemented the program this academic year.
However, after a semester of ‘We Bleed Red’, Connell was informed that student activity fees could not be spent on items that could be utilized by NC State faculty and staff.
“From my understanding there is a policy, the most recent form of which I’ve seen is 2008, that says you are not allowed to use student activity funds to purchase items that can be utilized by staff or faculty,” Connell said. “Student Government is funded by that student activity fund, therefore anything purchased can’t be used by staff or faculty.”
According to Connell, other buildings on campus have committed to or already have installed the cost-free menstrual product machines in their bathrooms with their own money.
“D.H. Hill and James B. Hunt [Libraries] have already converted their machines to be cost free,” Connell said. James B. Hunt I know for a fact; Hill, I haven’t tried yet, but they communicated to me they were purchasing the cost-free machines. Carmichael [Gymnasium] has verbally committed to installing cost-free machines within their locker rooms during the Carmichael renovation.”
Connell said that Talley Student Union agreed to try to find a way to pay for the cost of the product dispensers. Now, the members of the ‘We Bleed Red’ student initiative are working to personally fundraise almost $4000 to buy the menstrual products for the machines. The team has created a GoFundMe page and plans to spread the word of the fundraiser through social media.
“[Talley is] not legally bound to provide this product to students, so this is not just fundraising for it, but also showing them that this is really what our students and community value,” Connell said. “Raising nearly $4000, purchasing and donating [the menstrual products] would be a huge act. It would really show them the commitment that we have for this.”
Richa Patel, a fourth-year studying aerospace engineering and member of the ‘We Bleed Red’ student initiative, said that providing free menstrual products to students on campus is the right thing to do.
“Menstrual products are a need for most women and especially low-income women,” Patel said. “To have it as a free product is a relief for many people. To have it so accessible in a place that’s in the middle of campus is helpful because I know there’s many places where people are living around campus where it’s not accessible to even just go find and buy tampons and other menstrual products.”
Vice President Meredith Spence Beaulieu, a graduate student studying entomology, has communicated* with Connell on the initiative and represents Student Government’s standpoint.
“I know it can’t be funded from its current Student Government fee avenue,” Spence Beaulieu said. “I’ll be working hard with the university to try to get it funded from alternate sources so that we don’t have to depend on outside campaigns.”
Connell said that she believes that menstrual products are a form of health care and students should have access to free products on campus.
“This isn’t an issue just about women,” Connell said. “This is an issue for students, this is an issue for gender non-conforming, non-binary, transgender [people] and women. This is something that I think is a huge value to our community and just seeing how successful the pilot program was, was one of the best feelings I ever had in Student Government.”
‘We Bleed Red’ launched its GoFundMe webpage Monday evening.
*Editor’s Note: This article was updated for clarity about Meredith Spence Beaulieu’s collaboration with Mia Connell.