Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ‘21
By Mimi Huckins ’21
Features Editor
Mount Holyoke has created strict quarantine procedures for students arriving on campus this semester. Students are required to get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine until they receive a negative result. Still, after this test, students are expected to remain on campus for two full weeks. This isolation limits what students have access to, including necessary health products. With van trips to CVS and walks to the Village Commons prohibited, resources are limited to what students can find on campus. For menstruating students, access to sanitary products is essential to staying focused during classes and functioning normally.
For one anonymous student, this limited accessibility severely impacted the start to classes. Once on campus, they realized they had forgotten their sanitary products at home. “I forgot to pack my pads. And I don’t use tampons; th[ey] just do[n’t] really work for my body,” the student explained. “So I started my period about two days in, and I realized I didn’t have anything that I needed.”
Knowing the vending machine at Auxiliary Services carried personal hygiene products, they walked there. “I just assumed it’d be fully stocked,” they said, “and there were three boxes of tampons in there and one small package of panty liners.” They noticed that, while the box of panty liners had a $1.50 sticker, it cost $3 in the vending machine. “So not only did they not have any resources, but they put a ‘pink tax’ [on the panty liners].”
Jojo Zeitlin ’22, who works with Planned Parenthood Generation Action at Mount Holyoke, recognizes the importance of making sanitary products accessible to students.
“Mount Holyoke is absolutely responsible for providing menstrual products to students, if not [for] free, then at least [for an] affordable [price],” Zeitlin said. “We are not within walking distance to a store, and students need an accessible resource for basic necessities. It is not reasonable to expect that all students can afford menstrual products monthly, that all students have a car to drive to the nearest CVS [or] that all students have access to an Amazon Prime account to order products in an emergency.”
When the one resource the anonymous student had accessed was depleted, they resorted to contacting Residential Life. They felt the interaction was uncomfortable. While they were open about the topic and needed help, the person on the other line did not seem as comfortable with the matter.
“She said, ‘Maybe borrow from a friend,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I don’t think any of them use the product that I use,’” the student said. After explaining that this was not a viable option for the them, the representative from Residential Life told them to order supplies online. “Well, first of all, what if I don’t have the financial resources to do that?” they remarked. “You already marked up your box of pads from $1 to $3. What if I couldn’t afford that?”
Rachel Alldis, associate dean of students and director of Residential Life, clarified the training Residential Life staff have in order to deal with situations such as this. “ResLife staff are trained to share resources with students, [which means] they meet with various offices during training and those offices share what services they offer students,” Alldis said. “I think most staff would know to refer a student to Auxiliary Services, Health Services and delivery options. If a student had a concern with paying for these, staff would refer them to our Safety Net Fund.”
Zeitlin is well aware of the all-too-common struggle to access sanitary products.
“During normal circumstances, students may struggle to acquire adequate menstrual supplies due to cost, distance to the nearest store, infrequent buses and shuttles to the stores and the somewhat unpredictable nature of menstruation, among countless other reasons,” Zeitlin said. “The pandemic, of course, has added an extra difficulty. Some students may be unable to get to a store due to health reasons. Additionally, since students are required to quarantine on campus when they first arrive this semester, Mount Holyoke should absolutely provide necessary supplies [for the period that] students cannot leave campus.”
During the initial two-week campus quarantine, Alldis didn’t seem to think there would be much of a problem regarding accessibility to sanitary products. “Students were told they could not leave campus for just two weeks,” Alldis said. “We know that some products are available on campus, but most students packed enough and brought to campus what they would need for the first month here.” She believes that most students have been able to get products delivered or have been able to acquire them at Auxiliary Services.
Before the anonymous student was able to get sanitary products delivered, the stress of managing their menstruation affected their ability to keep up with the start of classes. “I basically just had to fashion my own menstrual products out of these things that were not made for menstruation. It just wasn’t what I needed,” they recalled. “I was kind of freaking out about it. Like, I’m trying to do my work, it’s only the second day of classes and I'm dealing with this. I'm stressed, and I can’t leave campus to get anything.”
Studies show that lack of access to sanitary products correlates to poor mental health. A study from BMC Women’s Health found that those who experience period poverty, or the inability to afford necessary sanitary products, have a much higher rate of moderate to severe depression, at 68.1 percent, while only 43.4 percent of those who have not experienced period poverty experience depression. Additionally, Latinx and Black women reported higher rates of period poverty than white women in this study.
The anonymous student recalls that they “[were] left very frustrated by the encounter” with Residential Life. “I just assumed, if you’re going to have roughly over 600 menstruators stuck on campus for two weeks, that you would have these resources.” Luckily, students noticed this issue in the past and have taken it into their own hands.
“I do believe there have been some student groups who have worked to provide them through grants or other outside organizations like Planned Parenthood, but this has been focused more … on general use buildings such as Blanchard [the Community Center] and the library,” Alldis said. Yet she noted that they have never been offered in residence halls during the five years she has worked for the College.
Planned Parenthood Generation Action is supplying sanitary products to students this semester as they have done in the past. Students can find the form to order these products on PPGA’s Instagram bio @mhcppga.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated as of Feb. 8, 2023 to protect one interviewee’s anonymity.