The Office of Planning and Facilities Management has installed 33 free feminine hygiene receptacles in the past year in partnership with the Georgetown University Graduate Student Government, though a lack of funding has stifled plans to install receptacles across campus.

GradGov’s efforts are part of its We For She initiative, which aims to provide free feminine hygiene products and services on campus.

The Facilities Management Office contracted Workplace Essentials, a restroom services company the university works with to provide a variety of services, to provide and stock the 33 new receptacles. By GradGov’s calculation, each Workplace Essentials receptacle initially costs about $357 per year.

After the first three years, Georgetown is slated to own the machines outright and pay only for product refills.
However, financial constraints have prevented GradGov and OFM from installing additional machines across campus. GradGov President Rima Mandwee (GRD ’18) said GradGov has faced trouble getting funding from the OFM’s limited budget.

GradGov plans to contribute $1,000 to the program and encourage organizations to match their donation. Eventually, they hope the administration will fund most or all of the free feminine hygiene initiative.

Mandwee said the lack of available feminine hygiene products appalled her when she arrived on campus in 2015. Mandwee started the campaign last year to address the deficiency.

“For some reason no one has gotten upset about this before. I don’t know how the school has gone for so long without feminine products in bathrooms,” Mandwee said.

The initiative has also received support from Students of Georgetown, Inc., which contributed $2,142 to place six receptacles in Regents Hall and the Leavey Center, according to Corp Chief Financial Officer Jared D’Sa (COL ’19). HoyasForShe week, a university collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women that promoted gender equality on campus in February 2017, inspired The Corp’s donation.

Vice President of Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey said the university is considering an expansion of the program to more campus locations.

“Planning and facilities management is supportive of this initiative,” Morey wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The new program provides the product for free with the hopes that the dispensers do not become damaged. There are a total of 30 locations across campus. We plan on evaluating the new program and consider expanding it to more locations.”

A number of U.S. colleges provide free feminine hygiene products for students, including Emory University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At others, like Brown University, the student government supplies products.

Piper Donaghu (COL ‘17), co-president of the Period Empowerment Project at Georgetown, an undergraduate student group that promotes menstrual hygiene as a human right, said the university does not provide adequate support for feminine hygiene.

“We can equate the absence of feminine hygiene products to a lack in toilet paper. People would be outraged if the Georgetown bathrooms did not provide this,” Donaghu wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Ultimately, Mandwee and GradGov believe the university should provide the same.

“There’s no feminine products in bathrooms, but it’s okay, because we have those bags for wet umbrellas. We fund that, but we don’t fund feminine products. I find it very strange,” Mandwee said. “I don’t know if people realize it until you point it out, but to me, it’s just ludicrous.”