There is one thing on campus that has been bothering me more and more lately. As a member of the Student Government Association (SGA), I currently hear issues and concerns from the student body regarding anything from parking all the way to the food in the dining hall.
Recently, a reoccurring open forum concern has came up once again, the fact that there are no sanitary napkin trash bins in the stalls of bathrooms in many academic buildings. Having been on SGA for three years now, I find it interesting that this problem still has not been fixed when it has been brought up at least once every year since I have became a member of the SGA.
As a campus that is 66 percent women and 34 percent men, I find it absolutely insulting and appalling that a basic sanitary option is not offered in most buildings to a majority of the university’s campus. For those of you who don’t know what I am referring to as a “sanitary napkin trash bin,” it is basically a technical phrase for a tampon/pad trash can.
I am not just advocating for the students on campus when stating this issue, but also for all of the female visitors to Longwood and all of the female faculty and staff that work here and have to use the restrooms as well.
Buildings mentioned in open forum that are lacking these trash bins are Willet Hall, CSTAC, and Hiner, all of which are heavily used buildings that attract women to their bathrooms constantly.
This is an incredibly important issue that needs to be addressed on campus, because this is straight up unsanitary and at this point I am not sure if the university really cares and that concerns me.
When a bathroom stall is lacking a sanitary napkin trash can, this causes women to have to hold their sanitary napkins with them in their stalls until they are finished using the bathroom. Then when they are done, they must walk them to the trash can (yeah the one that is supposed to be used for paper towels) and throw them away in front of friends or complete strangers that are also in the bathroom.
Even though a period is a natural bodily function, it is a personal bodily function and one that should be able to be addressed in a private manner, completely inside a personal bathroom stall in order to give women more comfort. Women should not have to walk across the bathroom, holding their tampons or pads wrapped up, because it is gross and it is embarrassing.
This is also a problem because it almost makes this natural bodily function seem like it is a second-hand matter to the university, when it should not be with a gender-diverse campus such as ours.
I looked up the pricing for a typical sanitary napkin trash can and the average price is $23.63. With bathrooms that have about five or six stalls each, I think Longwood can afford to help the women of the campus and give them this basic necessity. It is a long-term investment for a university that will hopefully be here forever.
