Courtney Blackett

Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC) recently hosted its first-ever Period Poetry event in the Oakland Center Habitat on Sept. 20.

The event was hosted as part of an initiative to promote and celebrate the success of OUSC’s free menstrual product initiative, which aims to provide products in every public restroom on campus.

Recently, OUSC received approval to purchase 89 menstrual product dispensers — a number allowing all women and gender-neutral bathrooms to have dispensers. Previously, the dispensers were only present in certain bathrooms.

“It’s a huge, huge amount that we’re purchasing, and they’re going to be pretty much everywhere on campus, which is really exciting,” OUSC President Murryum Farooqi said. “This is really a celebration that we’ve accomplished this huge thing.”

Attendees were able to read their original writing or share a story related to their experiences with menstruation.

Professor Jo Reger gave a short presentation regarding the history of menstrual activism. Reger said that the initiative is an important step on campus.

“When we control the way people feel about their bodies, they can feel shame, they can use products that are dangerous, ” Reger said. “It’s a much bigger statement than, ‘We need to take care of this one health issue.’ But it’s really about how we learn to think about bodies and how we learn to think about who controls those bodies. Is it corporations, or is there a way for us to retain control?”

Emily Briggs, president of OU’s chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), said the addition of 89 dispensers is a “huge accomplishment.”

“[These products] are not a luxury. They are essential and need to be treated as such,” Briggs said. “I’d like to thank you guys again for starting this, and to those who have stepped forward here and their continuous support towards a more inclusive and reliable future.”

Additionally, Briggs added that AAUW’s annual menstrual product drive will occur during the week of Sept. 24. Students are asked to contribute pads, tampons, pain relievers and menstrual cups to the Office of Student Involvement. Items will be donated to OU’s food pantry.

Maris Ferguson, OUSC vice president, read her poem “Power and Progress.” Ferguson said the event was important because of its “creative activism” component.

“Hosting an event like this helps work towards ending the stigma in general,” she said. “Oftentimes, issues like this are ignored because it’s stigmatized and because people are uncomfortable talking about it.

“Being able to open [the conversation] in this public forum and having people speak to their own stories, allowing them the space to do that and creating that space really helps to break down any kind of embarrassment.”

Farooqi said she hopes that hosting events like this will help the OU administration see the importance of providing menstrual products for free in university restrooms. Presently, the products are provided by OUSC, but the goal is for the initiative to be paid for by the university.

“This is not only to celebrate this accomplishment we made but also to keep it on the administration’s radar, [to show] that this is something that students care about, that people will come out and speak about,” Farooqi said.

“It’s to create momentum and add to the existing momentum,” she added.