Feminine hygiene products are unavailable in women’s restrooms in the new General Classroom Building, causing discomfort for some women students and faculty at Utah Tech University.
Utah HB 162 states that feminine hygiene products are required to be available for students and faculty at K-12 public and charter schools, not colleges.
However, in March 2023, Utah became the first state in the U.S. to have free menstrual products in state-owned buildings.
Sherry Ruesch, assistant vice president of facilities management, said all of Utah Tech’s buildings currently have feminine hygiene product dispensers, except the GCB.
The custodial services are responsible for checking the availability of feminine hygiene products and restocking them.
“I do not ever get complaints that they [dispensers] are empty,” Ruesch said. “Usually, there is always some [and] I have never had a work order saying that they [dispensers] were empty.”
Despite the availability of feminine hygiene products on campus, the lack of them in the GCB building during the current semester raises concerns among some of the students and faculty who work in the building every day.
Ruesch said they are working on delivering feminine hygiene products in the new building to provide students with necessities.
“It is super important to have feminine products available on a college campus, in my opinion, because those products can be pretty expensive, and so I think it is a good idea to have them free,” Shelley Rawlins, an assistant professor of communication, said.
Ruesch said the challenge for expanding access to more restrooms is the cost of the dispensers.
The lack of feminine hygiene products in GCB has affected students who face unexpected menstruation and those who struggle with the cost of these items.
“I am really only on the third floor, but I have not seen any feminine products in the bathrooms [in] this building,” Olivia Cosner, a senior communication studies major from Cortez, Colorado, said.
Another student who studies in GCB and notices the lack of feminine hygiene products is Jessica Terc, a senior communication studies major from Orange County, California.
Terc said, “I do think that we need more of [menstruation products], because sometimes, you know, girls’ time of a month just come[s] randomly, and sometimes it is nice to have those [products].”
Rawlins said the variety of feminine hygiene products is necessary to meet the needs of students and provide them with comfortable bathrooms.
The hygiene products are planned to be in GCB by next week, as the university is now waiting for dispensers and products to be delivered.
“I think it is important [to] have pads and tampons, because people have different needs,” Rawlins said. “Students deserve access to quality feminine products.”
