Would you willingly pay for toilet paper on campus?

I can’t even recall the number of times my period surprised me with a lovely early visit right before class, and I didn’t have a single pad or tampon on me. Thank you to all the lovely people who saved my ass in said situations, but there were also times I had to resort to a makeshift toilet paper pad because the menstrual cycle dispensers were out or I didn’t have a quarter on me. Most of the time, I would just run home because I panicked at the thought of blood seeping through my pants and the rash I would get if I waited through my class to get a tampon.

The first time that happened, I cried in the stalls of my high school bathroom and got a warning slip for being late to class.

But I never understood why this was the case. Why do I have to buy menstrual products at school? Why do I have to constantly come to class prepared for a breakthrough bleed at all times? I can’t control it and in some months, neither can my birth control. 

If any of this sounds repetitive, it’s because it is. On the Daily Trojan website, there are 40 articles relating to menstrual products, most of which say the same thing: students should not have to pay for having their period. Tampons and pads are not a luxury. How many times do we have to say it? How would you feel if you had to pay every time you went to the bathroom?

Organizations on campus such as the Undergraduate Student Government, ResEd and, most recently, the Viterbi Graduate Student Association have all worked on pilot projects to provide free and accessible menstrual products on campus for students. And yet, it feels as though none of these projects ever last. They either fail due to supply and demand, or fizzle out as leaders of said projects move onto greener pastures. 

According to the USG Advocacy Project Tracker, the Free the Tampon expansion project has been completed, but if that were the case, the Viterbi GSA wouldn’t have needed to start their own project.

But at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be any student organization’s responsibility to find ways for students to have access to menstrual products. It is the University’s responsibility. 

If the University can provide us with toilet paper, soap, paper towels and seat covers, they can find a way to stretch their operating revenue of $5.4 billion to cover menstrual products for students. Universities such as Brown and Emory have been doing it for years, so why hasn’t USC?

But if we truly want to compare, Governor Gavin Newson signed the Menstrual Equity For All Act of 2021 last October, mandating that all public schools and universities must provide free menstrual products by the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

While USC is not a public university, the University is still falling behind in providing adequate support for all of its students, as nearly all other schools in California are recognizing that feminine healthcare products are a necessity, not an option.

While we all have to buy our own toilet paper and soap at home, those who unfortunately get that nasty little red visitor every month or so have to pay around an additional $18,000 over their lifetimes over something they physically cannot avoid. The University might not think $18,000 is a lot of money, considering cost of attendance is between roughly $75,000 to $85,000, but not having to buy a tampon or pad on campus would not just be an enormous mental stress relief for students — it would also relieve major financial stress for many.

I’ve been physically struggling with regulating my menstrual cycle and complained to my roommate about how much I’ve had to spend on tampons lately. I’ll spare you the gory and painful details of what having a period every month is like, but she recommended investing in a menstrual cup to save money. While she isn’t wrong that it definitely would be cheaper, everyone who has to go through a menstrual cycle shouldn’t have to find alternatives or macgyver a pad out of toilet paper in a case of financial or physical emergency. 

Not being able to access free menstrual products speaks to a much larger issue in our society, but let’s start with our University. I’m begging you, USC, please make living with a uterus a bit easier on campus.