Last year, Hawaiʻi lawmakers who placed menstrual equity at the top of their agendas passed a monumental bill allowing all K-12 public and charter school students to have access to free period products in bathrooms.
This year, measures to expand that initiative to state buildings and colleges debuted.
Rep. Amy Peruso of Oʻahu introduced House Bill 481 this session, which would require all University of Hawaiʻi campuses to provide free period products to students.
While this bill slowly moves along at the Legislature, one college decided to take matters into its own hands.
Kapiʻolani Community College has had its own free menstrual product program since 2017. The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society launched a pilot project to distribute free menstrual products after they noticed the KCC campus had none.
Initially, the club used its own money to place a box of free pads and tampons in four of the busiest buildings on school grounds. Now, the project has now grown to accommodate more bathrooms with proper dispensers, all funded by the KCC student government.
Professor and PTK chapter advisor Julie Rancilio said students should not have to pay for menstrual products in bathrooms.
"We don’t ask student fees to go to toilet paper. We don’t ask student fees to go to the hand towels or the seat covers for the toilet," Rancilio said.
"Students shouldn’t be asked or make the hard decision to prioritize their money for menstrual products," she said.
KCC's student government buys 3,000 tampons and 5,000 pads in an academic year — totaling $2,600. KCC also has the second largest student body out of all of the UH community colleges.
Feedback was collected during PTK's pilot project phase, with many noting a common question: How will the club prevent people from taking more than one product?
"If someone really needs it, someone really needs it," Rancilio would reply. "But once people get used to having something in a regular place, there's less of that temptation to take one for later."
Period poverty affects 1 in 10 college-aged women nationally. That number is likely higher in Hawaiʻi, where half of the UH Mānoa student body has experienced at least one form of basic needs insecurity.
The next hearing for HB481 is scheduled for Friday, Feb 10 at 2:30 p.m.
