PSA at odds with university over distributed menstrual products: ‘All this drama over a free tampon’

With free menstrual products on campus, student party PSA aims to help students. But the university is calling the party to order due to house rules. ‘I’m curious whether the university is going to remove the bags.’

Free sanitary pads and tampons on campus: it was one of the points Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) campaigned on last year. On Tuesday, March 24, one month before the participation council elections, the party fulfilled this promise. In nine different buildings, the party placed red PSA tote bags filled with menstrual products in restroom areas.

That same day, the party received an email from the university, explicitly requesting that the menstrual products be removed. According to the university, the bags are part of the campaign for the upcoming participation council elections and are placed in locations where this is not allowed. However, according to the party, the timing is coincidental, says faction chair Panka Toma. ‘Before we could carry out the initiative, we needed funding, and that took time.’

After this explanation, the party received an invitation from the university to discuss the matter. But before the meeting took place, just a few hours after the first email, PSA received a second message. ‘The university informed us that it had consulted other parties involved and had decided that the bags had to be removed because they violate the house rules.’

PSA was also given a warning. If they do not remove the bags, the university will charge the party for ‘the cost of removal.’ PSA does not know how high these costs might be. The deadline was Monday. PSA has not removed the bags but says it has not yet received a fine.

House rules

‘Our problem is that we have repeatedly asked what the exact rules are, because the university keeps referring to the house rules but does not explain which rules are being violated.’ Toma finds the situation unclear and therefore questions whether their initiative actually conflicts with the rules.

Hans Haans, chair of the University Council, told Univers that placing items on campus is prohibited. ‘We have nothing against the initiative—we think it’s very good—but we have house rules, and everyone must follow them,’ Haans said. ‘If we don’t enforce them, it becomes chaos at the university, so violations have to be addressed.’

The university also pointed out to PSA that another pilot with menstrual products is already underway, an initiative by student faction SAM. But according to Toma, this is insufficient. ‘This is not meant as criticism of student party SAM, because I think it’s the university’s responsibility, but that pilot has been running for four years and still hasn’t been implemented university-wide,’ Toma said. ‘So we felt we had to take matters into our own hands.’

Frustration

Faction SAM confirms that it indeed lobbied four years ago for permanent, free, and structurally restocked menstrual products at the university. The faction is pleased that the topic is being discussed again.

‘The official procurement and rollout of these additional cabinets was supposed to be completed by January at the latest. The university did not meet that deadline. The current frustration among students and the ad hoc measures we now see in restrooms are direct consequences of a stalled implementation process of a policy that we had already pushed across the finish line,’ SAM said in a statement.

‘While we fully understand the good intentions behind placing tote bags in restrooms, students should not have to rely on informal, temporary solutions. They deserve reliable, hygienic, and permanent facilities provided by the institution. We urge the university to install the official dispensers as soon as possible,’ SAM added.

Support

On Saturday, PSA posted a video on Instagram explaining the situation, with the caption ‘all this drama over a free tampon…’. The video has been widely viewed and shared, and the nearly 250 comments largely echo the same sentiment: ‘this is ridiculous.’ ‘I’m curious whether the university will remove the bags and whether we’ll receive a fine,’ says faction chair Toma. ‘I would find that absurd.’

The party appears to receive substantial support on social media. PSA has also posted instructions on how students can formally file a complaint with the university. ‘We are devastated that the university is threatening to throw away menstrual products that benefit everyone and to shut down student initiatives like this,’ Toma said.

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