Delay in sanitary bin rollout

Sanitary bins are not available in every gender-neutral bathroom on Massey campuses, despite promises made by student associations earlier in the year. 

At the Manawatū campus, MUSA President Fatima Imran said the sanitary bins are being discussed with the Massey Operations head. “There is talk going on about adding sanitary bins into male bathrooms for trans tauira,” she said. 

According to ASA Vice President Michaela Futter, operational issues on Massey’s end has delayed both the sanitary bins and period product distribution in Albany. “There has been some delay due to Massey staff resigning and taking holiday leave during the school holidays,” she said. 

Similar difficulties have slowed the two projects for the Wellington campus too. 

MAWSA Vice President Elizabeth Hodgson said several factors, including lack of communication from staff, time and organisation have all slowed the pace of the period product project run at MAWSA’s end. 

“After the success of our Flow Week in May, I regret to say that the project has sort of fallen off since Operations did not reply to me for a good month or so,” she said. 

However, she said efforts to distribute free period products and to get sanitary bins in all bathrooms are still being made and more information will be coming soon. 

“The attempts to get free sanitary disposal units in all bathrooms is something I have not forgotten. MAWSA is following in the footsteps of ASA in terms of this project. I have recently emailed Michaela, the VP of ASA, to follow up on a proposal she wrote last semester on this trial.” 

According to Elizabeth, the project will likely continue into next year with support from both Massey and MAWSA. 

“Due to the structure of the rest of the year, this looks like this is going to be a project that will continue next year, either through the next VP or the Welfare and Equity Committee. Operations are pretty slow to action but are very clear that they want to support this.”