After a Student Government committee rejected a proposal to provide free menstrual products to students, some took to Facebook to organize protests and temporary alternatives to the proposal.
Nikita Bozicevic, a 20-year-old UF linguistics sophomore, posted on the UF Class of 2020 Facebook page Wednesday and suggested students create a “take what you need, leave what you can” system for menstrual products in campus bathrooms.
“I figured we can come up with some way to help people, because that’s the goal,” she said.
SG Budget and Appropriations Committee unanimously voted against a code revision to use students’ activity and service fees to pay for pads and tampons Jan. 15 after 20 minutes of deliberation, according to Alligator archives.
Bozicevic said she read about the decision on Facebook and decided to take action. She was skeptical about how popular her idea would be, she said. She put her phone down for an hour after she made the post and came back to find likes and comments. She created a Facebook group “Accessible Menstrual Products at UF,” which has 137 members, as of press time.
Sophia Ahmed, a 20-year-old UF materials science and engineering sophomore, joined the campaign’s Facebook group and organized her own “bleed-in” protest, “Are you seeing red?”
Protesters will meet on Turlington Plaza and paint washable fake blood on the back of their pants Tuesday at 9 a.m., Ahmed said.
While the group’s plans are still in the beginning phases, Ahmed said she wishes SG could have done more.
“It pisses me off,” she said. “We advertise all the time that we’re a top 10 public institution, and a lot of other public institutions give out free menstrual products. Why can’t we be similar like them?”
Follow Amanda Rosa at arosa@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @amandanicrosa.
A photo of tampons.
