Girls just want to have funding

It’s a taboo topic that no one wants to talk about: women’s menstruation cycles. In most settings, the situation is reserved for the individual, but menstrual cycles are a regular biological process. 

At Eastern, this regular biological process affects over 60% of the campus population. Despite this, something as basic as menstrual products (such as pads and tampons) and rubbish bins are missing from female restrooms across campus, including academic buildings and dorm halls. 

“I believe that this issue affects our entire student body,” Student Government Association President Sarah Westmoreland said. “If females don’t have basic support, then how can we be expected to operate during the same hours as men on campus? We can’t.” 

The crossover between women’s need for menstruation products and educational access has become more prevalent with Act 55 of 2024 being signed into Law in July, allowing an allotment of funding for public school health services to be used for menstruation products. (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) Since Eastern is a private school, though, there is no public funding that could be used.

These products are practical for females on campus, many of which are academic and hygienic. A 2021 study commissioned by Thinx and PERIOD looked at the availability of period products to students and the impacts it had. According to the study, “38% [of students] often or sometimes cannot do their best schoolwork due to lack of access to period products” and “51% of students have worn period products longer than recommended.” (State of the Period 2021)

“One student expressed to me that there’s a problem with the students having to go back to their dorms to change menstrual products because there’s, especially with tampons, a bit of urgency to change tampons. People are missing class as a result or they’re late to class and that’s bad,” a female professor who wished to remain anonymous said.

For many women, cycles don’t happen regularly, and they could be caught without the necessary products. This happens for a variety of health reasons, including medication use and conditions like PCOS. Women also need to change menstrual products to avoid reactions like Toxic Shock Syndrome or urinary tract infections. Furthermore, women need access to nearby rubbish bins for sanitary and privacy reasons.

“I was in the women’s restroom in Walton, and I noticed there was a [lack] of the rubbish bins in the women’s restroom stalls. I had to awkwardly carry waste into the public trash can in the women’s restroom, and I felt really uncomfortable,” the professor said.

“I had reproductive cancer, and I’m going to be bleeding for the next three months as a result of the surgery I had to get,” she continued. “I’m constantly running around for tampons on campus and I’m frequently running to the restroom in between classes, and it’s problematic that I don’t have some kind of receptacle to toss waste products in. It’s a basic thing that people may regard as trivial, but at the end of the day, it isn’t. I have to go teach a class. We all have to do our jobs.”

The professor contacted the Plant Ops department to see if the rubbish bins could be installed in the bathrooms. In response, she was told that Plant Ops needed a list of which bathrooms did and did not have the bins, including the dorm bathrooms. She sees the issue as a disconnect between the needs of Eastern’s female community members and the pillars of the institution’s mission statement.

“Jesus taught that all people are equal and deserve dignity and respect. He showed how we ought to practice compassion, heal the sick, subvert racism and even promote women. Jesus was pretty into that. So the fact that Eastern University is not acknowledging this pretty gaping discrepancy is fundamentally antithetical to what it advocates,” the professor said.

According to Westmoreland, the university needs to hear from more students about the issue. She is meeting with many administrators about the topic and has received positive feedback about how it could benefit Eastern students. 

“So far the reach of the student involvement only involves those in Student Government and around two dozen people that signed a petition showing support,” Westmoreland said. “This is my petition to all students of Eastern University to stand up and talk about this issue more with professors, staff and administrators that you know. The first step in solving any problem is to have open and clear conversations about it.”

Dr. Anne Filippone, the interim Vice President of Student Services at Eastern, shared her perspective on the issue from the administrative side.

“I think there is more awareness around the need for products to be provided, but funding can be an issue,” Filippone said. “There is also a wide range of products to choose from, so offering quality products that consumers will use that are also cost-effective can be challenging.”

“I believe SGA is currently focused on this as one of their initiatives this year,” she continued. “I think funding and oversight of ordering/restocking, as well as having dispensers in place, would be the major obstacles, but I believe that is being considered as part of a grant application process that has been submitted.”

Westmoreland has been involved in the Eagles Essentials project for the past year, getting crucial funding for the university and setting up the food pantries in all of the dorms over the summer. She and Filippone believe the university could receive supplies through this same project.

“There are currently some things in the works and I’m hopeful there will be movement on this initiative soon,” Filippone said. “In the meantime, there are products that are offered in the restroom on the first floor of Walton and through the campus Health Center.”

Westmoreland is expecting to hear about the status of the grant by the end of October. In the meantime, the next thing for the community to do is stay involved in the conversation moving forward. 
“Student Government is looking for more feedback from the student body. We look forward to host town halls, student round tables, senate events and collaborating with clubs this coming year,” Westmoreland said.