“It’s free. Period.”

Walk into any women’s or all-gender restroom on campus this semester, and you will now be welcomed by that tagline. Announced by SU News on Aug. 12, free period products are now available campus-wide.

Supported by the division of Student Affairs, baskets of tampons and other menstrual products are available for all students, with additional supplies offered in Big Red’s Cupboard.

The announcement of SU’s new initiative was brief — a press release of just over 200 words — but the fight for free menstrual products and gender equity on campus has been long.

Misty Knight, the director of SU’s Women and Gender Studies (WST) program, has worked with students over the years to advocate for additional access to menstrual products.

Knight, who has worked at SU since 2008, detailed how conversations surrounding access to period products and increasing gender equity on campus have been taking place for over a decade.

But conversations have not always led to action.

“It was just constantly pushback,” Knight said. “Then, when [students] said that they wanted to start stocking [bathrooms] for free, like, as a class project, they were told that they weren’t allowed to do it, because then people would start expecting it.”

So for several years, students and faculty members within the English, WST and other departments began keeping stocks of menstrual products in classrooms across campus. Many also became fierce advocates for the evolving need for gender equity across campus.

Jordan Windholz, English professor and past chair of a social justice-oriented faculty committee, became an expert in a topic he never expected — bathrooms.

In the fall of 2019, Windholz “walked and surveyed every single bathroom on campus and made a spreadsheet about which included hygiene products, which did not, which could feasibly be converted to all gender restrooms, and which [could] not.”

Windholz, Knight and English and WST professor Shari Horner expressed the erasure of the years of work and “hours and hours of research” by them and their colleagues that has consistently been ignored as equitable developments are made on campus.

“We’ve had a long history on our campus of student support, [support] coming from faculty and staff and students that just got erased when that announcement came out,” Horner said.

“The people who had done the research and the work have not been brought into the conversations of implementation,” Windholz added.

The rollout of the period products initiative is just one example, Windholz says, of a pattern of SU frequently being behind the times when it comes to promoting gender equity on campus.

“I think one of the things Ship has really struggled with is gender equity, being a more inclusive campus in terms of, like, less homophobic, less transphobic,” Windholz said. “It’s, at times, felt like a boys’ club. And I think I don’t know if we’re past that really.”

Furthermore, Knight says, SU administration has repeatedly delayed implementing equity-related changes until they have to.

“Until they’re up against the wall, until you’ve gotta do it or you’re gonna get sued or the governor has this new policy so it’s gonna look good if we follow along…until there is something that serves as a tipping point, we’re gonna resist, resist, resist until we have to do something.”

Knight was referring to an inclusion in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2024-25 state budget, which allocates $3 million for free period products in Pennsylvania schools. On Sept. 16, Lori Shapiro, Gov. Shapiro’s wife, visited campus for a closed-door meeting with several students and administrators to discuss the initiative and other related topics.

“Our decision was not influenced by the governor’s budget as the governor’s budget does not provide any funding for period products in higher education,” Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs Lorie Sheetz said. “Conversations were taking place prior to his announcement and his budget allocations do not impact Shippensburg University.” 

Knight acknowledged that multiple administrations have put up barriers to period product access.

“The current president and current dean of students that made this announcement were here for lots of students asking for this to happen, and they were the ones that said no in the past few years,” Knight said. “It’s not like they didn’t know that this was happening.

“I feel so conflicted because I’m so happy that it’s happening and that the products are there for the people that need them, but I feel so, so frustrated on behalf of all the students and faculty and staff that have been working for this,” Knight said.

Sheetz acknowledged the resistance from previous administrations but touted the work that has been done in recent years.

“Over the past few years, there have been strong advocates on campus for providing period products in more places than just the PAGE Center and Big Red’s Cupboard,” Sheetz said. “However, the previous administration did not feel it was a priority.”

“The phrase I use a lot of times is strategic stupidity, but I know there’s a better phrase,” Knight said. “I think a lot of it is practiced ignorance. If you don’t know all of the history, it’s better just not to address any of the history and leave somebody out — maybe [that] is the thought.”

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