UA Little Rock Provides Free Period Products to Campus Community
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has partnered with the Aunt Flow Initiative to provide free period products for the campus community.
Dispensers stocked with free, organic cotton menstrual pads and tampons are available for use in 10 high-traffic academic buildings and residence halls across campus.
Students involved in UA Little Rock’s Chancellor’s Leadership Corps (CLC), a leadership development scholarship program dedicated to service learning that impacts the community, will be responsible for monitoring and refilling the dispensers across campus. CLC students also run the Trojan Food Pantry on campus.
“The concept of joining the Aunt Flow Initiative is to help fight against financial insecurity for those who have menstrual cycles,” said Corrigan Revels, assistant director for student leadership and development. “That fits in very well with the Trojan Food Pantry, which also provides personal hygiene items because they can be very expensive for students. We are dedicated to supporting the alleviation of any barrier that prevents students from going to school.”
In response to calls from the student community for greater access to period products on campus, the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps and Student Affairs Wellness and Inclusion have been working for two years to bring the Aunt Flow Initiative to campus. Founded by Claire Coder in 2016, Aunt Flow is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to period products.
“Wellness and inclusion is an area that is very important to me, and we want the use of period products to be inclusive for everyone who needs them,” said Sharon Ann Downs, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs – wellness and inclusion. “Periods do not always arrive on a schedule. People are not always carrying period products or change to buy them from machines.”
By providing free period products to campus, UA Little Rock is removing an obstacle to education that is common to many students. A study from George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services shows that 1 in 10 women on college campuses experience period poverty, which is the lack of access to menstrual products.
“Joining the Aunt Flow Initiative will also help us reduce the amount of people who miss school because of having their period and not being able to afford period products,” Downs said. “This is really a retention issue. Of all the things that can derail a student from getting an education, this is an easy one to fix.”
The dispensers are located in bathrooms in the Jack Stephens Center, Windgate Center of Art and Design, Fine Arts Building, University Commons, Student Services Center, Donaghey Student Center, Dickinson Hall, Ottenheimer Library, Trojan Grill, and University Village.
More information about the UA Little Rock’s partnership with the Aunt Flow Initiative can be found at ualr.edu/foodpantry.
