The Menstrual Products Initiative is entering the fourth week of its 10-week program, with 10 restrooms on the Homewood campus stocked with menstrual products, offered to any JHU affiliate to be used, as needed. Currently, the restrooms are being restocked by undergraduate and graduate student efforts at least four times a week, more often if a problem arises or a dispenser is reported to have run out of stock. Based on current menstrual product usage rates and feedback received up to this point, the initiative is serving emergency and in-need situations well and is overall received very positively, despite some of the technical issues dispensers are facing with dispensing products. In an attempt to combat the dispenser malfunctions, restocking volunteers have been placing products on top of the dispensers (or in the tray) for people to use when needed. This system, based on usage rates, has been working well and Wings thanks everyone for being respectful of this temporary adjustment.
Wings has new updates for Week 4: Last week, we announced that about half of the dispensers are either semifunctional or nonfunctional, while the others are still operational and provided some trouble-shooting methods. Earlier this week, Facilities met with the representatives from the dispenser vendor and discovered that a lot of the technical issues were a result of the faulty batteries, and upon replacement, the dispensers recovered their function, for the most part. Wings and Facilities are still investigating the remaining dispenser issues, and hope to provide a more in-depth and holistic update by next week, the midpoint of the initiative.
Wings thanks everyone for their patience and requests members of the JHU community to continue to fill out the feedback form and continue to report problems with dispensers when they are malfunctioning. Thank you for those who have already provided feedback through the feedback form. More information about the next feedback round for the MPI for the month of March will be coming soon, on the Wings Facebook page and website.
Because this is a pilot program, it is a primary goal of Wings, Women and Gender Resources, Facilities and the Dean of Student Life to collect data and metrics on the usage and the response to this program. Positive feedback, criticisms, comments, questions, inquiries are gladly welcomed through the survey MPI: February Feedback Form, especially if this initiative has served you or someone you know.
Please do not hesitate to contact the organizers of this initiative, Wings, by email: wingsjhu@gmail.com, or connect with them on Facebook if you have any questions, feedback, or interest in involvement.
