Over spring break, Physical Plant installed free feminine product dispensers in six bathrooms on the Fort Lauderdale/Davie campus as a result of legislation from the Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA).
The new dispensers are located in the women’s bathrooms in Flight Deck, the first floor of the DeSantis building, the first floor of the Alvin Sherman Library, the second floor of the Parker building and in the Health Professions Division.
Yara Khalifa, commuter senator for SGA, was one of the authors of the legislation that led to the installation of the free feminine product machines.
“We have a 70 percent female population here,” she said. “[The machines] are something that will relieve a lot of frustration for 70 percent of the population.”
The dispensers currently installed in most of the NSU bathrooms require 25 cents per product. The free dispensers are in a trial stage, and if the test goes well, Physical Plant may install more units.
Anthony Iovino, assistant director of the physical plant, which oversees housekeeping, transportation and waste and recycling, said that the old machines caused problems because people would tamper with them and insert the wrong coins. He also said that the coins turned in never matched the number of products dispensed by the machines.
The new machines are more heavy-duty, according to Iovino. They also use buttons instead of knobs, and a red light indicates when the dispenser is empty.
Iovini is keeping track of how the newly-installed dispensers are being used and whether the dispensers are emptying too fast. He believes the new machines will work out well.
“I don’t think a lot of people carry a lot of coins on them anymore to use in vending machines,” he said. “We hand out paper towels and toilet paper, so I think [feminine] products should be, especially if there’s an emergency, easy to access.”
Iovino said that feminine products take up an extremely small percentage of NSU’s budget for janitorial products, and that buying more feminine products won’t make a huge impact financially. The campus supplier of housekeeping products, Veritas, has donated the first year’s worth of feminine products to help start the new program.
Khalifa said that she’s gotten positive responses from students about the free feminine product dispensers.
“No one’s angry that we’re using the student service fees to pay for [the machines],” she said.
Iovino said that he’d like to see more machines installed throughout campus.
“I’m on board with it, unless I see something outrageous,” he said.
Caption: The new dispensers provide pads and tampons for free in six women’s bathrooms on campus.
Credit: G. Ducanis
