Transforming Campus Wellness: Texas A&M’s Period Project Report

Introducing the Period Project, a subcommittee under Texas A&M University’s Human Environmental Animal Team (H.E.A.T.)! With the help of a grant from the Aggie Green Fund, the Period Project has been working to provide TAMU students with free and accessible period products since Spring 2023.

TAMU students now have access to Aunt Flow products in 4 different bathrooms around campus ⸺ including the installation of two dispensers and two display boxes.

The Period Project team is currently working on gaining support from the university through continuous funding to make period products in bathrooms a norm across campus. As part of this work, the team released a campus-wide survey to hear from the community and their experiences with Aunt Flow.

Survey Data Findings

The survey results concluded that:

• 56.4% of respondents have had to leave campus before, specifically due to a lack of period products.
• 43% of respondents haven’t been able to easily obtain period products on campus when they needed them.
• 87.2% of respondents strongly agree that the Aunt Flow dispenser was easy to use.
• 97.4% of respondents would use period products from the dispenser again.
• 87.1% of respondents strongly agree that the Aunt Flow dispensers are a benefit to the student body.

When asked to expand on their agreement with the statement “These dispensers are a benefit to the student body,” respondents said the following:

• “The period products that are for sale on campus are so marked up in price as to make them inaccessible, so I would sooner leave campus or scrape by with toilet paper than spend $5 on a couple of tampons. The availability of free products in bathrooms has been extremely helpful, and so would affordably priced options (market price, not convenience/luxury price).”
• “Campus-wide dispensers would eliminate so much stress when caught off guard with my period. I think that tampons can be hard to find only for the fact that I don’t carry my money around everywhere. I have my student card for meals, and I don’t usually carry around so much money unless I am specifically going to buy something.”
• “Period products are a necessity, not a luxury.”
• “Access to period products is so important so that students can focus on learning! I had to buy menstrual products from the bookstore my freshman year, and there were almost no options, and those options were expensive.”
• “These should be in every bathroom on campus.”
• “This project is so amazing! Every time I see period products available for us, it brings me so much happiness and comfort.”

Feeling inspired? Advocate for Aunt Flow at YOUR school OR Build Your Period Program!

[Sami Sharfin](/content/blog/author/samigoauntflow-com/ "Sami Sharfin"/index.html)
Sami is the Brand and Communications Manager at Aunt Flow.