Free menstrual products now at Viterbi


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The Period Project is a partnership between the Viterbi Graduate Student Association and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. (CJ Haddad | Daily Trojan)

The Viterbi Graduate Student Association has partnered with the Viterbi School of Engineering to provide free menstrual products in bathrooms across the school. This partnership, called The Period Project, seeks to help bridge the gap for underrepresented groups in engineering, including menstruating people, for whom purchasing menstrual products might  pose a financial burden. 

“USC does allow students to  do community outreach, but there’s not as much effort sometimes being put on helping students with mental well-being and well-being itself,” said VGSA vice president of treasury Niraj Ganesh. “We do so much to help others, but who is helping us in our time of need?”

Ganesh, a graduate student studying product development engineering and a team member of The Period Project, said many on the team were involved in similar initiatives while they were undergraduate students. Once they met at VSGA, they decided to start The Period Project with the goal to expand it into other basic needs and departments. 

“As engineering students, with the analytical and problem solving skills that we’ve gotten … we’re thinking, ‘How can we take that and use it for something like this where you create social impact through really precise analytical movements and approaches?’” Ganesh said. 

Viterbi vice dean Kim Bregenzer, who has been the link between VGSA and the Viterbi administration, said it is very important for the school to support its students, which is why the project is fully funded by Viterbi.

“It was good that [VGSA] brought this to my attention because I think it definitely is a need for achieving gender parity in engineering to make sure we have the resources for all genders,” Bregenzer said.

Bregenzer and other members of The Period Project team are currently working with University administration to make free menstrual products available campus-wide. While the original plan was to complete the project in a year, the time frame could be extended, Bregenzer said.

“We’re currently in talks with the Student Affairs Office, as well as people at the Health Sciences Campus,” Ganesh said. “The goal is to, with their help and support, along with some of the other organizations we’re talking with, to expand this out to other departments.”

Buildings currently serviced by The Period Project include the Science & Engineering Library, Ronald Tutor Hall and the Olin Hall of Engineering. A full map with the exact bathrooms for each building can be found on the project’s website.

Students can help support the project by letting VGSA representatives know when a bathroom is missing products, Bregenzer said. They can also help by filling out the survey at the project website, which asks students which buildings they frequently visit in order to establish an order of priority to select locations for products. The project currently aims to expand to at least 50 locations at Viterbi, Ganesh said.

VGSA vice president of finance Nora Li also said it is important to spread awareness about the project so that students know the resources available to them. Students can follow @uscvgsa on Instagram to get updates on the project.