On Feb. 19, the Oswego State Student Association signed in the period resolution. While this sounds like a good idea, there are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of funding and execution that should cause people to hold off on celebrating.
Free is always a nice word to hear. It is commendable that SA took the time to strive to make feminine hygiene products available all across campus for all members of our campus community who may need to utilize them.
While at face value the resolution sounds like a wonderful idea, there are too many unanswered questions to allow skeptics to celebrate quite yet.
One major issue is that the SA resolution does not guarantee that the college administration will follow through with this suggestion. Students can celebrate their agreement on this topic as much as they want, but that does not change the fact that ultimately it is the administration that has the final say.
Another concern is that, even if the administration chooses to follow through with this SA suggestion of what the campus community wants, where is the money for this funding coming from?
According to the resolution, $500 will be drawn equally from the SA president’s executive civic engagement fund and the SA contingency fund. While it is reassuring that it will not be a cost added to a student’s bill, it is still being taken out of the contingency fund. This fund is used to provide campus organizations with extra funding when needed for unforeseen or extra expenses. This means that this amount of money will be taken away from student organizations to use.
Another concern is that only $500 is being taken between the two funds from SA. To buy 36 tampons, it costs approximate $7 at a retailer such as Walgreens. The resolution calls for free tampons and menstrual pads to all women’s restrooms, gender-neutral restrooms and one third of men’s restrooms on campus. Assuming there are approximately three female bathrooms in each building on campus, that alone is easily well over $500 worth of feminine products. There are at least 23 buildings on campus, which is approximately 69 bathrooms and does not include gender neutral or the one third of male bathrooms that are planned to offer these products as well.
While I support the idea of offering these products for free, the logistics just are not there. Yes, it is unfair that females have to pay a luxury tax on feminine hygiene products they are forced to buy. And yes, it would be wonderful if Oswego State would be able to offer this to their students for free but given the allotted money and logistics of the situation, that just does not seem to be a viable future.
It is so important to fight for and continue to work toward the better future that we believe in, but great ideas are only achievable through viable logistics. Yes, $500 is a start, but it offers a whole new host of problems for which buildings it will be offered in since that amount is clearly not enough to cover every building for all of the restrooms that the resolution claims to cover.
Great ideas can only go so far as what can actually be achieved. It is unfair to present something as fact when the true possibility of it is unlikely.
Photo by: Maria Pericozzi |The Oswegonian
