The university will be putting menstrual products in multiple buildings. Hans Biemans with the board of directors made this promise last Thursday to a committee in the university council.
In April, Biemans refused a request from Lijst Calimero to provide menstrual products across the university, in whatever form. He didn’t feel this was the university’s job.
The board did say it would support those faculties who independently wanted to do a pilot. An assessment would follow this fall. In June, students protested in an effort to get the UG to provide menstrual products university wide. Three hundred students signed the petition.
Inclusion
Whether any faculties actually did a pilot wasn’t clear on Thursday. The Faculty of Economics and Business was the only one who was already providing products. Nevertheless, Biemans announced that the university board would be coming around this Tuesday after all. He did emphasise that the university isn’t responsible for care. ‘It’s a matter of inclusion.’
He didn’t say how the products will be distributed. It’s possible they won’t be provided everywhere. ‘Maybe we’ll only put them in ground-floor bathrooms, for example.’