Free period products in UT bathrooms

| Michaela Nesvarova

The University of Twente starts a pilot for offering free menstrual products to students and employees. The pilot is scheduled to begin in May and will entail placing baskets with menstrual products in several UT bathrooms. The plan was approved by the University Council today.

The eight months long pilot will be carried out in a number of bathrooms in Technohal and Zilverling, including one male bathroom in each building. Each chosen bathroom will have a basket with menstrual pads and tampons. These baskets will be checked on daily basis and refilled if (almost) empty.

The free period products should be accessible to UT students and employees as of May 2022. After eight months it will be decided whether or not the pilot was successful, and if the UT should continue with providing free products on campus.

The success of the pilot will be measured by the demand and satisfaction of users. The bathrooms will be supplied with stickers and sheets of paper, which people can use to indicate how happy they were with the service. A QR-code can also be scanned if people want to give more feedback or get more information.

As stated in the proposal submitted to the University Council, the pilot aims to combat period poverty within the UT community. The budget for this pilot will come from the Diversity and Inclusion office of the UT, the Student Union, the Student well-being group, study associations and other parties within the UT who would like to contribute. After the pilot ends, the goal is to expand the availability of products at the UT. 

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