Free Menstrual Products Are Now Offered in UB School of Law Restrooms

In response to a request from law student advocates, free menstrual products are now available in the gender-neutral bathrooms on the Angelos Law Center’s first floor and in the women’s bathrooms on 0, 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12. This action is part of a growing national trend on college campuses and in other public spaces.

The students, aided by Associate Dean Margaret Johnson and supported by some faculty and student organizations, argued in their proposal to the law school administration that “because menstruation is a natural bodily process affecting over half the population, menstrual hygiene products should be regarded as fundamental necessities to the hygiene of our academic and social environment, as ubiquitous as toilet paper and soap dispensers.”

In 2016, Brown University became one of the first schools to implement a large-scale program to put menstrual products in bathrooms. Since then, several public universities — Ohio University, Texas A&M at Corpus Christi and the University of Illinois among them — have done the same. More recently, students at University of Maryland College Park have been campaigning for widespread access to these products as well.

“The goal of providing these free products is to make sure our students, staff, and faculty of limited income, or experiencing a sudden, unexpected menstrual flow, are not precluded from being fully engaged in the community,” the UB Law students wrote in their proposal. Some students reported having to miss class because they had a sudden, unexpected period, and no products were available, even for purchase, on campus.

Menstrual justice is an emerging issue in communities around the world, with a growing recognition that those who menstruate are subjected to discrimination, harassment, constitutional violations, insults, indignities, economic disadvantages, health disadvantages and exclusion as a result of this natural bodily process.

Law school community members are asked to only take what is needed in order to sustain the service.