The Innermost Truth: Brandeis is a Business
Menstrual product access denied for thousands of students
Lisa Kim Thorn is a Heller community contributor and former editor of the Open-Air Journal. We encourage all Heller students, alumni, staff, and faculty to write to us at openair@brandeis.edu. We are committed to publishing letters that contribute to constructive dialogue among the Heller community.
These articles are solely a reflection of the contributor and are not endorsed by the Open-Air Journal or the Heller School.
Brandeis University will leave thousands of students without equitable access to menstrual products after refusing to fund the student-led pilot program implemented at the beginning of 2023. In the grand scheme of all that is wrong with profit-driven institutions, menstrual equity is a whisper in the wind and yet, there is an endless struggle to voice what 93.94% of students agree with—that menstrual products should be available in all bathrooms regardless of gender.
Menstruation is a natural bodily function outside any practical means of human control, yet pads and tampons are considered a luxury. If Brandeis can’t afford to provide the necessary products to address our bleeding bodies, there is little hope that it will address that which is within its control—liveable wages, diverse tenured faculty, a physically accessible campus, and queer-inclusive pedagogy.
The complex bureaucracy of academia ensures marginalized voices stay that way. Our professors are overworked and underpaid. Our staff and graduate student workers are refused reasonable pay and benefits. And students, staff, and faculty are incentivized to fight each other in the battle of priorities while those at the top cozy up to $10 million dollar donors who decide how that money benefits students they know little about.
The truth is, despite being labeled a 501(c)(3) academic institution, Brandeis—and all universities—are profit-driven enterprises. My experience as a senior leader in a global organization has sharpened my senses to discern bureaucratic nonsense. And being a woman of color, I know when I am being placated, undermined, ignored, patronized, and sent on time-wasting fetch quests for “more data.” Not knowing enough is the perfect cover for not caring enough.
The Undergraduate Student Union (SU) and Period Activists at ‘Deis (PAD) footed the $23,000 bill for installing dispensers in 52 women’s and gender-inclusive restrooms in the first-year residence halls. As you read this article now, students stock and repair these dispensers—unpaid. In fact they pay the university to live on campus and learn from the institution. It’s quite the deal for Brandeis University.
I could detail the meticulous cost evaluations the students documented, how they inventoried every dispenser across the entire campus, or how they have provided year over year reporting on the need for menstrual products in the 2022 and 2023 PAD Reports. However, it limits the conversation to who deserves the paltry Facilities Administration budget while leaving the Strategic Steering Committee off the hook. This is a story about power and money.
The Facilities Administration was denied a $43,000 budget request to continue the pilot program through the 2024 fiscal year. Despite the unanimous passage of a resolution in the Student Senate and support from the Faculty Senate, this basic necessity will continue to be funded by the Community Emergency and Enhancement Fund—which is funded through student tuition. It is a phenomenal deal for Brandeis University. Students pay for and provide the labor while being the ones with no car, no job, and no leverage.
After multiple attempts to gain an audience with those above the Facilities Department, we are forced to rely on senior leadership and influential faculty to advocate on our behalf. A system rigged to fail when advocating for students conflicts with other department leadership’s goals. Cross-department financial planning incentivizes defensiveness and resource hoarding and leaves student needs crushed beneath the priorities of those who have already decided facilities has “enough” to keep every student safe and healthy.
Free Menstrual Products Work
We were asked for data that proves the program is needed and we delivered. Chart 1 describes how the pilot program reduced difficulties accessing menstrual products from 59% to 5% between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. The pilot program also reduced affordability challenges from 28% to 7% during that same period. We’ve seen a nearly 75% reduction in students missing class, exams, and work due to not having access to menstrual products on campus. These results are something the VP of Student Affairs, Andrea Dine, Provost Carol Fierke, and EVP Stewart Uretsky should find worth investing in. However, while we were asked to gather data, to show the need, to document our results, and to research costs of different vendors, it turns out data was not the problem. They asked us—students—to find areas of their budget that could be cut if we wanted to support providing free menstrual products for students, staff, and faculty.
Students who identified having difficulty accessing menstrual products on campus in Fall 2022 compared to Spring 2023
Chart 1: Respondents who were asked to identify if they experienced difficulty accessing menstrual products in Fall 2022 compared to Spring 2023
Speizer, K., Jackson, S., & Gillespie, P. (2023). PAD Report, Spring 2023: An update on the status of menstrual product accessibility on Brandeis campus’ (PAD Report). Period Activists at ’Deis https://periodactivistsdei.wixsite.com/padmonthly/springn-23-report
Menstrual Equity is Gender Equity
While 60% of the first-year undergraduate population identify as women, not all women menstruate and not all menstruators are women. In the 2023 PAD Report 13% of respondents identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, or wrote in their gender identity. While the Heller School provides menstrual products in 1 out of 3 men’s restrooms as they inch closer to their title as a top 10 social policy school, no other building on campus even attempts to provide a gender-inclusive environment beyond the flags, hashtags, and stickers.
Free support is not support when you are an institution spending $145 million on a state-of-the-art science facility. The plans do not include gender-inclusive menstrual accessibility. Not for lack of awareness, as Uretsky, Fierke, Dine, Chief Operations Officer Lois Stanley, and Director of Facilities Lori Kabel are all aware of the more than 400 students and alumni who have signed a petition in support of free menstrual products across campus.
As Brandeis prepares its pride flags, posts photos of queer students on social media, and brandishes pride merch, let us also hold the institution accountable to its messages of allyship when it has the ability to do so much more than perform. Menstruators deserve to menstruate in dignity without being forced to use bathrooms that invalidate their gender identity. Menstrual products are not luxuries for which people must pay extra when using the restroom. And Brandeis University not only has the financial capability but the absolute responsibility to care for the students, staff, faculty, and visitors who deserve an environment of acceptance and belonging embedded in the Brandeis name.
For more information regarding the student-funded Menstrual Product Pilot Program reach out to Period Activists at ‘Deis (PAD), the undergraduate menstrual advocacy group and the Undergraduate Student Union. These students provided all data, led planning, and provide the free labor to restock and sustain this necessary program.
Download a map to find a bathroom with free menstrual products on campus.
Support PAD and the many students, staff, and faculty who deserve free menstrual care by signing PAD’s petition to fund the program through the 2024 fiscal year.
