STUDENT LEADS LAUNCH OF MENSTRUAL EQUITY PILOT PROGRAM IN GEISEL LIBRARY Third-year Thurgood Marshall College student Liane Barkhordar is on a mission to help solve period poverty right here on UC San Diego’s campus. Her action was spurred by an assignment in her Dimensions of Culture course, which is grounded in Marshall College’s commitment to social justice. The project tasked students with writing a research paper about an issue on campus and proposing a solution. Barkhordar’s topic: period poverty. During her research, Barkhordar discovered California Assembly Bill No. 367 (AB367), which was signed into law in 2021. An existing law required public secondary schools to stock half of their restrooms with period products and prohibited schools from charging for them. With the passing of AB367, known as the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021, schools are now required to stock free menstrual products at all times in women’s restrooms, all-gender restrooms and at least one men’s restroom. While the bill requires the California State University system and community college districts to follow this law, the Regents of the University of California and private post-secondary institutions are only encouraged to do so. This struck a nerve with Barkhordar, prompting her to investigate if other UC campuses had taken action in response to AB367. That’s when she discovered UCLA’s student-led period pilot initiative. Through her research, Barkhordar learned more about their process and how UCLA’s student leaders worked with campus administration to enact change. Inspired by her UC peers, Barkhordar took the first steps to start her own initiative at UC San Diego and decided to run for Associated Students (AS) Campuswide Senator. She centered the period pilot initiative in her campaign and went on to be elected. From there, she worked with
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