BLEEDING FOR FREE AT CAMPUS?
BLEEDING FOR FREE AT CAMPUS?
Journalist: Marie Tjelta
Photographers: Tuva Hebnes and Ingunn Reimers
Translator: Sofie Palmstrøm
Web Distributor: Julie Anine Strømme
“Does anyone have a tampon?” is not a rare sentence to hear at the women’s rest rooms. Packing layers and layers of toilet paper in your panties is also not a rare solution when you have been visited by an uninvited guest in the middle of lectures and have forgotten to bring pads or tampons. To solve this, the students have for a while now fought for free access to sanitary products like tampons and pads at campus. If you make a trip to BIOVIT you may have already noticed that there is an emergency storage of tampons. Why did this appear? How far have we really come. And why should bleeding at campus be free?
Background for the arrangement
The Student Parliament has for a long time worked towards getting the proposal of free tampons and pads to be a reality. We had a short interview with Jens Bartnes, leader of the Student Board at NMBU, to get a final status update. It all started when committed students at NMBU submitted a resolution called “Equal access to sanitary products at NMBU”. The resolution proposes that the university should offer free sanitary products like pads and tampons all over campus. It was accepted by the Student Parliament and now the Student Board is fully engaged in following up on it.
Arguments for and against
In the resolution, it is argued that such an offer is important to maintain the standard that the university should offer all students a good learning environment. As the study day can easily be interrupted by having to go home from class due to unexpected menstruation, this standard is not met to the same extent for all students. “It is a small measure that does not cost as much money and can contribute a lotto the welfare of students at NMBU, and therefore I think it is a very good measure to use some resources on,” Jens explains. Afterall, it concerns half the population. Critics of the concept point out that students will only empty these stocks and take as much as they can. Nevertheless, Jens points to the University of Bergen, which succeeded in implementing the program last year and where the scheme has worked very well. There are also several examples of other institutions that have adopted the concept, where we see that students show respect for the offer and only take what they need.
How far have we come?
As of today, the Student Board is in contact with NMBU, which has shown interest in starting a pilot project, where dispensers with pads and tampons will be set up in various restrooms in the most central buildings on campus. The goal is to have everything in place before the summer so that it is ready for the fall semester. At this moment, the Student Board is waiting for a response from a supplier who can be responsible for filling up the dispensers with products so that students do not have to worry about it.
BIOVIT took matters into their own hands
On the other hand, the BIOVIT faculty has taken matters into their own hands and made a head start. We contacted the Student Council leader, Bonnie Sutherland, who was one of the initiators. She had been part of the Student Council when the resolution on free pads and tampons was accepted, but when nothing happened, she took matters into her own hands. As it was a pilot project with a prototype, this would only apply to the most central buildings, and it might take years before the concept reached her faculty. Therefore, Bonnie contacted the dean at BIOVIT to inquire if the Student Council could receive funding for it. They were given 250 NOK to buy products and chose to set up an emergency stock of pads and tampons with this money. You can find them in the restrooms of Fruktkonservatoriet and at the Animal Science Building’s student wing. So, if you are lucky enough to be there when that time of the month suddenly arrives, BIOVIT’s got your back!
The Students Have Spoken
If there’s one thing this issue has shown us, it’s how engaged and proactive the students at NMBU are. The engagement for free pads and tampons has been demonstrated in many different arenas, whether it is as regular students with an idea, the Student Parliament, or the faculties’ student councils. The students don’t hesitate to use their voices, and hopefully, it will be free to bleed all over campus before we know it.
