Playtex-friendly bathrooms
The University is finally getting in touch with its feminine side.
Instead of frantically running home to the bookstore or requesting the kindness of the girl in the next stall, female students and faculty now have the convenience of using 10 new tampon and sanitary napkin dispensers located around Grounds.
"I never find a machine that is filled" in other public places, said Emily Lorand, a visiting future University student. Lorand will have no such worries when she arrives at the University next year, thanks to the relentless efforts of the Student Council Women's Affairs Committee.
The dispenser project began over a year ago in response to a female student's concern at an open Student Council meeting.
The student "was disturbed to realize that there wasn't something this simple" at the University, said Abby Fifer, Student council chief of staff.
Fifer said there have only been a few dispensers in Bryan Hall in the past and they rarely worked.
"It seemed silly to have all these female students and not a single tampon machine," said Erin Segal, a Women's Affairs Committee member who worked on the project.
The committee will be responsible for restocking the dispensers.
Future plans include putting up stickers on all the dispensers revealing the locations of all the other machines on Grounds, as well as in the bathrooms that do not currently have dispensers.
Student Council was excited to provide "even a smaller difference in the day-to-day happiness" of students, Fifer said.
Anyone with questions regarding the dispensers should write to studco-women@virginia.edu.
Compiled by Julie Hofler
Odds Ideas? Call Christa or Josie at 924-1092.
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