Erica Correia

Contributing writer

Should tampons and pads be free on campus?

“That time of the month” is a phrase that most women dread thinking about.

The phrase brings an onslaught of emotions, and not because of the hormone levels rising.

There are many things that go into living daily life when a woman is on her period: what you are wearing, what you are doing, how prepared you are, etc.

This can cause a lot of stress for many people. Anxiety builds when they think about if they are bleeding through their pants or if they have a replacement tampon on hand.

Many women think that if tampons and pads were free and available to them on campus, it will make their lives easier by not having to worry about not having a tampon on them when they are “surprised”.

I, myself, would love to have hygiene products available when I needed them. In case of an emergency or just so I would not have to spend my own money anymore.

In my opinion, while seemingly enchanting, this idea would not work out as many would think.

There are some who believe that having the school provide these hygiene products would save them money.

However, the number of tampons and pads that would have to be bought consistently by the school would cost an enormous amount of money.

Money that the school would have to raise the tuition to pay for, ultimately costing us more money than it does to just buy our own products.

Think about it.

The number of women on campus, not just students but faculty as well, using them multiple times a day all year round. That is a lot of tampons.

Also, there would be many people taking more than their fair share of the products which would cost even more money to replace.

Just face it, some people are not very considerate of others.

The only solution to that would be to have them in a centralized place where they could be regulated by faculty.

The problem with that though is that it affects the other point people make in this argument.

The other point people make in wanting them free on campus is that they would like to have the security of pads and tampons being readily available in the restrooms when they need them. 

This is not plausible or possible if they need to be regulated.

Nobody would be able to leave class to use the bathroom, leave the building to go to another building to get the pad and go back to the bathroom before going back to class in a reasonable amount of time.

While this idea seems great from a distance, if you look closely at the logistics, it is not a possibility.

The day where feminine hygiene products are treated as a necessity by everyone and not something we chose to pay for is not here yet.

Until then, women have to buy pads and tampons for themselves.

In the end, college campuses would not be able to shoulder this monetary responsibility without affecting their students immensely.

Email Erica at:

ecorreia@live.esu.edu