Part I

UCSB Students Are Shelling Out for Basic Menstrual Hygiene Needs

The situation is familiar to many: you go to the bathroom and are surprised to find that your period has made an unexpected appearance. You hurriedly search through your bag, blindly grasping for a stray pad or tampon. Is that it? No, it’s just a pen. Your options are limited; either ask the people around you if they have a spare, hope that the restroom has a tampon dispenser (and that you have a quarter or two), or create a makeshift device out of toilet paper until you can get to the nearest store. For students who spend a large portion of the day on campus, or cannot easily get around, a surprise period often means an emergency trip to a campus convenience store.

UC Santa Barbara students should be prepared to shell out $9.40 at the campus bookstore for a box of 18 regular Tampax Pearl tampons — 104.7% more expensive than those sold at the Goleta Target which is located approximately four miles from the University Center.

It is safe to assume that this disparity has affected a significant portion of the student population of UCSB — 53% of which is female, according to the Office of Budget and Planning’s 2019-20 campus profile. This figure does not entirely represent students who face this though — nonbinary and transgender students who menstruate may also struggle to pay for menstrual hygiene products, and face additional barriers, such as the lack of menstrual hygiene products in men’s restrooms.

“Generally we price these products on a suggested retail price provided by our vendors and survey surrounding areas to ensure we are not overpricing products that are essential. Even further, we have surveyed female employees in our stores to ensure the prices fall in line to what seems reasonable given surrounding entities that sell these products in and around Isla Vista,” Director of Retail Dining units Cisco Celis said in an email.

But a look at the nearby in-store and online options tells a very different tale. The Goleta Target sells the same brand for $4.59. CVS sells them for $6.00, and it’s neighbor Albertsons sells them for $7.49. In Isla Vista — the unincorporated community next to UCSB’s campus where most students live — a box of 18 costs $6.99.

The numbers tell a different story than Celis’ statement: Target’s tampons are less than $0.26 apiece. CVS’s tampons cost just under $0.33 apiece. The university bookstore’s tampons cost $0.52 apiece; other campus stores, the Arbor and the Corner Store, that sell 10 tampons for $3.99 a box cost roughly $0.40 apiece.

The sale of tampons on internet marketplace platforms — Google Express in this case — yields a result far friendlier to student budgets: 96 regular Tampax Pearl tampons with plastic applicators for $14.55, or $0.15 apiece. For less than double the price, purchasers would be given more than five times the amount of the same type of tampon that they could buy at the bookstore.

The university stores obtain menstrual hygiene products from a third-party distributor, rather than the product manufacturers themselves. This method of purchase requires the university stores to markup the prices, which, according to Celis, cannot allow the university to compete with prices set by local retailers. The same can be said for UC Los Angeles, according to Jose Quiroz, the buyer and manager of UCLA’s campus store The Market. Since manufacturers demand a high minimum, The Market’s products are purchased through a distributor, which does not allow them to have prices as low as major retailers. “They are definitely comparatively priced, as [the] product category in consumer awareness is high, in regards to pricing. We offer a wide variety of these items. While it is not Target priced, it is still reasonable,” Quiroz said.

Celis credits the input of female employees for the 40-70 cent price drop in the 2018-19 fiscal year. However, despite claims that employees approve of the price of tampons in campus stores, some say otherwise. Margaret McMahon, who worked at UCSB campus convenience store, the Corner Store, from 2017-19, said that she interacted with campus dining directors “a good amount,” but was never asked for her input on product prices. Celis maintained that these surveys of employees are informal.

“No one ever asked my opinion on the prices of the feminine hygiene products in the stores, but customers commented on them a lot,” McMahon said. “They would just comment on how expensive and not worth it they were.”

The hefty prices of menstrual products have captured the attention of the student governing body, Associated Students (A.S.), as well. A.S. candidates of years past have advocated for free menstrual products as platforms. Ashley Ng wrote in her campaign for off-campus senator that she planned to “continue to fight for free menstrual products in all campus restrooms.” Rachel Ng, in her bid for External Vice President of Statewide Affairs, pledged dedication to decreasing the barriers preventing access to reproductive resources, claiming, “Students should be able to access free feminine hygiene products in all bathrooms on campus.”

Though students are able to access free menstrual products from the Associated Students’ Food Bank, it is an unsustainable method of acquiring enough to last one period—let alone a single day. The Food Bank, which is open four days a week, allows patrons to take a maximum of three menstrual products per visit. If a student were able to get the maximum amount of product every day the Food Bank operates, they could get 12 pads and/or tampons per week. The average menstrual cycle lasts between three and seven days, with tampons or pads needing to be changed roughly every three to four hours (though it is entirely dependent on how heavy the flow). A student who acquires the maximum number of menstrual products in a week could realistically only last around three days on their period.    

UCSB’s basic needs resources website makes no mention of where students can access menstrual products. Though the website is dedicated to providing information regarding physical, mental, social & cultural health and resource guides, feminie hygiene does not fall under any of those umbrellas. Under its “UCSB answers” search bar, keywords like “tampon,” “menstruation,” or “feminine hygiene” yield no answers — only redirects to “related questions” such as “How Do I get a Free Copy of Microsoft Office?” or “Where can I eat on campus?”

However, some progress has been made. UCSB’s Women’s Center, in conjunction with Health and Wellness, provides free menstrual products in the female and gender neutral restrooms throughout the Student Resource Building (SRB).

The Women’s Center, which is located in the SRB, is one of the few places on campus that offers free supplies. “We want to further support trans and nonbinary folks who menstruate but may not feel included in our societal conversations about periods, which is why we ensure these products are provided in gender neutral restrooms in the SRB,” said Jamiee Cook, graduate assistant at the Women’s Center.

In late 2018, it was reported that the UCSB Residential Housing Association (RHA) planned to introduce free menstrual products in five of the seven on-campus dorms. The program, which has now expanded to all dorms, utilizes RHA funding, as opposed to university funding.

The Period Pantry program was funded $2,068 for the 2018-19 school year. This money came from the RHA activity fee, which every student who lives in the residence hall pays, totalling in $34.50 per quarter. The Period Pantry came from the “donations and allocations” line of the organization’s budget, which totaled to $57,345. 

“By increasing accessibility to menstrual products, we hope to make life better and simpler for residents,” said 2018-19 and 2019-20 RHA President Laila Voss. Voss also noted the importance of accessibility, claiming that putting menstrual products in female and gender neutral bathrooms is an important reminder that having a period does not make one a woman, and one does not need to be a woman to have a period.

The Period Pantry program has received positive feedback according to San Miguel’s 2018-19 Hall Council President Kaitlyn Medland. “We have the free condom boxes and yet we [didn’t] have free menstrual supplies even though … you can’t stop your period,” she said to the Daily Nexus.

The comparison between condoms and menstrual products is not lost on students. 2019-20 A.S. Senator Ektaa Tendolkar was one of several candidates who included access to free menstrual products as part of her core platform. “If the school is offering students free condoms, I think it’s only fair to have access to free menstrual products as well,” she wrote in her official campaign statement.

Condoms are provided at no cost by the university; they appear in some campus restrooms, at the Student Health Center, and in the dorms. It is also not uncommon to receive packages of free condoms and lube while walking through the Arbor, the area outside of the UCSB Library, where students often go to promote clubs or interests. However, even if a student doesn’t have access to free condoms, the campus stores sell them at a drastically reduced price. In the campus stores, a three-pack of Trojan Ultra Thin condoms is sold for $3.50. On Amazon, the same exact product is sold for $7.49.

In terms of organization, menstrual hygiene products and condoms share many similarities: they both fall under the umbrella of “Health and Beauty Aid” in campus stores, and are both purchased from third-party vendors. But in UCSB campus stores condoms are marked down by 53.3%, while tampons are marked up by 104.7%.

“I'm pretty sure like 50% of our population at the school gets their period and probably way less than 50% are having sex with condoms,” Tendolkar said. “So why are those given for free?”

Though Tendolkar is passionate about distributing free menstrual hygiene products on campus, she cites continuity issues within the Associated Students Senate and cross-departmental communication as reasons why the project is something previous senators have never been able to achieve.

“The issue with keeping free tampons in the bathrooms at all times is because [the] Senate is changing every year. So there's different people coming in and out of office. What they needed to do was establish a committee to establish continuity over years and years and years that can work with [the] Admin in order to enable that product isn't being wasted,” Tendolkar explained.

“That's what people are scared of. They're like, ‘If we say that we're going to give free tampons, people are going to take all of them. It's not going to be viable.’ But then why don't people do that with condoms? Because they know it's going to be there.”