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Menstrual Product Project

Project Contributors: Tanzila Malik, Priya Joshi, Lauren Forsyth, Adamarys (Addy) Arias, Amariah Patterson, Lizbeth Castro, Oreoluwa Olaniyan, Zulmy Orellana-Villacorta

The Menstrual Product Project’s Purpose

  • Get people talking about Menstrual health
    • Created a linktr.ee
    • Instagram with additional information
  • To have at least 3 free menstrual dispensers in each building
  • Create an interest survey

Problems we ran into

  • Not having enough time during the semester to get everything done
  • Scheduling conflicts with the Women’s Center and UMBC facilities
  • The language that was used on the poster was not inclusive

So change of plans (instead)

  • We created informational pages
  • Put up posters to spread the message of free mental hygiene
  • Got over 100 responses on the survey
  • Garnered support for the student body and staff

https://linktr.ee/freemenstrualproductsumbc

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Domestic and Sexual Violence Instagram Profile

A project to make a difference by Morgan Moore and Allison Cox

Our team wanted to create a project that made a difference in respect to domestic and sexual violence, specifically regarding marginalized groups such as black, brown, and trans people. Originally we wanted to create portraits of sexual violence survivors with captions under their faces, but we soon found that we lacked the time and resources to do so. We opted for an instagram profile, because it is easily accessible to many people and was less time consuming than our original idea. If we were to do this project over again we would have budgeted our time better to make it possible for us to post more on the instagram. However, we accomplished telling the stories of sexual abuse survivors and hopefully made somewhat of a difference! Allison did three posts on the instagram and made the blog post, Morgan made the final presentation, reflection, and did two posts on the instagram.

Check out our instagram!:

https://www.instagram.com/sexu.alviolenceawareness/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

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UMBC needs to be more Pet Safe

The problem that I am addressing with my project is the use of harmful chemicals to pets on UMBC’s campus, specifically the use of dangerous pesticides, road and sidewalk salt. I know that UMBC claims to be pet safe, and many students have emotional support animals on campus, but the chemicals used in the salts and pesticides have proven to harm the pets on campus.

 I, myself, have an dog for an ESA on campus and have run into many issues with the chemicals used. My dog, Mr. Moo, broke out into open sores due to the pesticide treatment that continued to worsen when I moved him on campus. He got burns on his paws and I had to get him little rubber boots to wear so that the road salt used on the sidewalks around the residential areas didn’t burn his toes. While there are pet safe options for both pesticides and road salt, UMBC uses harmful chemicals that made me once again have to move my ESA off of campus until it was safe again for him, which entailed waiting for the pesticides to be washed away. 

My specific goal of my project was to research what specific salt, and pesticide treatment UMBC uses on campus and offer them a better solution for each, which will make the campus safer not only for the ESA’s, but for anybody who walks their dogs on campus, the wildlife, and the feral cats that call campus home. For my project I scheduled an interview with Mr. Hogan and sent him a list of my questions prior to the meeting, so that he could provide all the answers I was looking for. My questions focused on current treatments used as well as offering him better alternatives. Mr. Hogan was very willing to meet with me and help me learn about what goes on behind the scenes. In fact, I found that my phone calls and efforts I put forward last year, when I called Mr. Hogan to talk about my issues with both the pesticide use and road salt. I learned that UMBC has switched to a liquid road salt solution, cutting down on the environmental impact. As far as the pesticides, he told me that the application process has been modified to use a liquid herbicide around residential areas and walking areas called Triple SF. It is a selective herbicide that leaves little to no residue to reduce the impact on local fauna and pets on campus. For the larger campus Mr. Hogan informed me that they use Resolute 4FL, another type of selective herbicide. My conversation with Mr. Hogan assured me that he and the ground department do care about the animals on campus and listen to student concerns. 

I would deem my project a success as it seemed to perfectly wrap up what I unknowingly started last year. 

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Why Ukraine Still Matters

By Sam Kefauver and Matt Sachs

What are we advocating for?

While Ukraine remains entrenched in a seemingly endless war with Russia, the public’s attention to the conflict and struggles experienced by the Ukrainian people has dwindled since the conflict escalated in February, 2022. The stories captured by mainstream news outlets detail changes and developments surrounding the political and economic landscape of the war, as well as ongoing battle progressions. BBC, Fox, NBC, and Reuters are some of the most popular news companies in the world, and yet they have failed to create more visibility to the humanitarian struggles in Ukraine. Refugee movements have been overshadowed, with the primary focus changing to who is winning the war, what is being supplied to Ukraine, and the threats being made by Russia. This analysis will feature an overview of how news outlets are reporting on the war, and then shift toward interviews we have conducted of Ukrainian immigrants regarding the war, its coverage, and public attention. Finally, we will report on organizations that report on all spheres of the conflict in Ukraine with a  prioritized focus toward humanitarian struggles, as well as discussing what can be done in order to better support Ukrainian struggles.

While mainstream news organizations have kept Ukraine in the spotlight since the war escalated, news reports have failed to keep attention on humanitarian issues surrounding the conflict. BBC has covered fears in the United Kingdom over raising potential for violent crimes in the UK due to the massive amount of weapons provided to Ukraine throughout the war (O’Donoghue, 2023). Reuters on May 9th published an article discussing attacks on Kyiv by Russia on the anniversary of V day, as well as other updates on ongoing fighting in the war (Reuters, 2023). Fox and NBC have focused largely on who is winning the war and current fighting movements, with NBC remarking on the “stunning scale of Russian deaths in Ukraine” (Smith, 2023) and Fox discussing developments in the Bakhmut region and Russian army struggles (McFall, 2023). In all of these examples, there is little to nothing being said about civilian struggles and refugee movements in Ukraine. Other news reports center around similar subjects as those listed above, or around aid being provided to Ukraine from the US and other allies. 

While these issues are important to cover, it needs to be understood that news organizations aren’t actively using their platforms to help the Ukrainian people and aren’t doing enough to engage the public in Ukraine’s struggles. The public is no longer following the war and humanitarian issues surrounding it as closely as they were when it started, and the general concern for the ongoing suffering in Ukraine has dropped tremendously. Some of the reason for this is due to overall mental exhaustion in hearing about updates in Ukraine, and some is due to the lack of effort by news agencies in finding ways to engage the public about issues surrounding the war. Ukrainian individuals whom we have interviewed have provided detailed accounts of the horrors of war, civilian struggles in Ukraine, and frustrations surrounding the visibility of the crisis and attitudes toward the war on social media.

Learning about Ukrainian Lives

A huge part of our project was reaching out to displaced Ukrainians in order to get better insight than what the news outlets were sharing. Here are some of the things we learned from the people we interviewed!

Oleksandr shared what leadership under russian occupation was like, as he lived in Russian-occupied territories. He shared about how living away from home was so bad that he returned to an active war zone just to be home. He also shared about his efforts supplying laptops to those who no longer have access to school, so they can engage in online education. We learned from him about how exhausting it is to have news not make it outside of Ukraine, but how the war gave him purpose.

Daryna shared about the suddenness of the conflict, and the current state of Ukraine. They shared about how Ukrainian infrastucture is still unstable (blackouts and missile attacks), and Daryna taught us about how committed many were to the safety of others; some individuals did not want to leave but completely relocated, knowing it was safest for their family. She shared how there are horrible events still going on that could respark interest if they were publicized, but are banned by social media platforms. She shared a reliable donation source (see below!) and let us know that any social media presence helps.

Sofiia shared about how horrific and disorienting the war was for her, but how she appreciates the national coverage of it brough to Ukraine, because before no one cared when it was occupied before. She shared about how she found new purpose in her online learning communities and her dog adoption shelter that saves mistreated russian animals and animals misplaced from owners during the conflict. She understands the societal exhaustion and waning support, but if people knew about the struggle to function with the lack of infrastructure (like inconsistent electricity), then the public might be more inclined to support.

Anna shared about how leaving the country was a tough and uncertain experience. She talked about the value of food return programs were a key way for her and many others to survive while they were displaced. Another program she thought was incredibly valuable was the ukrainian media coverage and people reposting in english. She also helped us understand that much of social media doesn’t truly understand the conflict, mostly through not being able to comprehend the severity of the situation, both in Russia’s intent and in how dangerous the streets are.

Overall, we gained a more nuanced picture of what was going on! Not only did we get to see more individual lives, but their stories helped us find better avenues to support and gave us a much more comprehensive understanding of what the conflict was really like, and how the people of Ukraine lived in it.
If you want to see the full interviews, the link is here!

How do I learn more? How can I support?

For best understanding the conflict on a day by day basis, we wanted to present a few more resources that we believe give good, active, and reliable knowledge about the lives of Ukrainian Refugees:

https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine – This is our most objective source, giving active information of the number of Ukrainian refugees still displaced.

https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/ – This source can give you better insight and knowledge with quick and informative content about the conflict. They also share testimonials of Ukrainians to give even more insight! 

Time is one of the main solutions that can be given to alleviate the war in Ukraine, as there is nothing as individuals that we can do to bring a sudden end to the war. However, the question, “what can I do?”, still remains, and is so often expressed when people encounter tough issues that are meaningful to them. In response to this question, we have gathered links to a few ethical, well known, and grassroots organizations who are gathering donations to support various causes connected to the war in Ukraine. We encourage those who read this post to either donate or share this post to gather attention and support for these organizations. We have taken information provided from the websites of these organizations to describe what they are doing in Ukraine and how donations can support them.

Doctors Without Borders:

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/ukraine

“Every day, Doctors Without Borders teams deliver emergency medical aid to people in crisis, with humanitarian projects in more than 70 countries.”

“As the war in Ukraine escalates, our teams are responding to a deepening humanitarian crisis.”

“On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a large-scale military operation in Ukraine that rapidly escalated into a war across most of the country. Doctors Without Borders is expanding our medical and humanitarian response to the evolving needs of Ukrainians and those affected by the crisis.“

GlobalGiving:

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/

“GlobalGiving is a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits by connecting them to donors and companies. Since 2002, we’ve helped trusted, community-led organizations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (and hundreds of places in between) access the tools, training, and support they need to make our world a better place.” 

“Your donation to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund will provide:

  • Shelter, food, and clean water for refugees
  • Health and psychosocial support
  • Access to education and economic assistance
  • And more”

Future for Ukraine (FFU) Foundation:

https://ffu.foundation/en/donate

“Created by Ukrainians, for Ukrainians”

“Together, we have launched new initiatives, traveled hundreds of kilometers for humanitarian missions to hot spots, supported wounded soldiers within the framework of the prosthetics project, and taken care of displaced Ukrainian children and women.”

Foundation Goals:

  • Help Children
  • Help the wounded
  • Help for the military
  • Humanitarian help
  • Support medical institutions
  • Helping women
  • Support refugees

Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation:

https://prytulafoundation.org/en

“Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation is focused on strengthening the Defense Forces of Ukraine and providing assistance to the civilians affected by russian aggression.”

“Our mission is to help Ukrainian civilians affected by russian aggression regain access to decent living conditions”

“Helping our military fight the occupant on land, at sea, in the air, and in space everyday till victory.”

Sources

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Upcycling Makes Better Clothes

The fast fashion industry produces incredible amounts of waste every year, contributing to the second greatest source of pollution in the world. This is due to wasteful practices at both the corporate and the individual levels. We hoped to make a project that would educate our peers about the environmental effects of fashion waste and encourage them to adopt sustainable fashion practices in order to limit the fashion waste produced at the individual level. Initially, our plan was to create a zine with information on the environmental and social effects of fashion waste that would be accompanied both by a webpage with similar information and an in-person event where students would be able to swap their old clothes with one another. We also intended for the zine to be available physically as well as digitally for easy access to all students. 

Ultimately, we decided that creating a zine, webpage, and an in-person event would be extremely difficult to do within this semester. We chose to prioritize the zine. The first half of the zine highlighted the pollution caused by the manufacturing process for the clothes we wear, as well as the amount of clothing that is thrown out every fashion season and with every new trend. The second half of the zine covers ways that students can upcycle their clothing, so as to prevent them from throwing them out and to encourage them to wear their clothing longer. Information regarding other sustainable fashion practices, such as taking care of their clothes and buying higher quality clothing that can be worn for years, was also included. 

In the future, if this project were to continue, we would definitely want to host a clothing swap event. Not only would it be extremely fun, it would also be an opportunity to mobilize a daily large portion of the student body and educate them on sustainable fashion practices and how to limit their own fashion waste. The way we split up the workload and created the zine worked very well. However, in the future, the distribution of the zine itself as well as setting realistic goals from the get-go is some things that need to be improved on in the future. Overall, the main takeaway from the experience was how accessible activism is. We were able to mobilize and produce an easy-to-digest zine that educated others on a major issue. We will be sure to remember this facet of our project as we move forward and devote ourselves to other causes. 

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Fighting Toxic Masculinity One Meme at a Time

This project aimed to address toxic masculinity specifically within fraternities with a focus on consent. It is not uncommon for a girl in college to have either experienced or know another girl who has experienced roofying or sexual assault at a frat party. Addressing these issues and emphasizing the importance of consent is a crucial step towards facilitating a safer and healthier environment for all students.

Frat culture has historically been known to encourage toxic, violent “ultra-masculine” behavior, from initiations rights and hazing to other rituals. Some examples of common hazing practices include alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation, and sex acts. Another issue with fraternity culture is sexual assault. Studies have found that men in fraternities are 3 times more likely to commit sexual assault than their student peers. (Our Wave, 2022).
While this may not exactly be the case at UMBC, it’s important for students to know and understand the dangers of such toxic behavior and the importance of consent, as well as be aware of healthier ways to express themselves and connect with their frat brothers.

Our goal was to address these issues in a non-confrontational way in order to reach those in fraternities and encourage consent with the use of relatable and lighthearted memes and images. We decided to create an instagram account to reach and engage with students at UMBC, including those in fraternities. Our page included humorous yet insightful memes, as well as more educational posts that describe what consent looks like and what it does not. Our account reached a decent amount of followers (over 100), as well as interaction and reposting from other students, including a couple fraternity brothers. We included captions such as “tag a friend” to encourage more interaction and exposure for our account. Additionally, with the help of Dr. Kate, we were able to print out flyers containing some of our posts along with our instagram handle and hang them around campus to reach more students.

Although we did have a decent amount of followers and interaction with the account, an obstacle we faced was getting interaction specifically from our target audience, fraternities. If we were to do this project again, we would probably need to find more strategies to increase this interaction in a way that does not seem forceful.

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Student Disability Services Reform

By Jon Woods, Onyx Purnell, and Cici Molnar

Accommodations ensure learning equality, yet people with disabilities are often overlooked and are told they “aren’t disabled enough” to need accommodations. We highlighted three points where UMBC’s Student Disability Services (SDS) office has made accommodations inaccessible to many students on campus. 

The Survey

We conducted a survey of 16 UMBC students who participated. 9/16 students have attempted to use SDS. The results will follow throughout the remainder of the blog.

Problems/Solutions

What even is SDS? What do they do? SDS stands for Student Disability Services; They are the office responsible for providing accommodations to disabled UMBC students. Our analysis of student experiences revealed that they aren’t doing enough. We noticed a problem: many students don’t know where to even get accommodations. SDS has very little advertising, if any, resulting in many students with disabilities finding SDS when it was too late in the semester for them to use their services. If you have any type of disability, you have a right to receive reasonable accommodations for equal access to education, no matter when you first happen to find out about SDS. We believe SDS needs more and better advertising for who they are and what they can do for disabled students. 

Imagine you go through the motions of asking for help while disabled and not getting it. That’s what’s happening. According to our survey, 5 out of 9 students (55%) had reported having an issue with SDS. These issues include SDS staff not responding to emails, having a difficult time opening an account with SDS online, or staff being rude (in the office, over emails, zoom calls). Another 4 students report never attempting to use SDS even though they believe it would be beneficial.

You currently cannot receive accommodations through SDS unless you have a diagnosis of a disability through a psychiatrist or a medical practitioner. This targets low income students as doctors can be inaccessible to them due to cost restraints. Mental health stigmas also keep individuals from getting a diagnosis. Removing the need for an official diagnosis would allow people who need accommodations access to them; This is what our project strives to do. In replacement of a diagnosis, a recommendation from a teacher, admin, parent, or on campus doctor could serve as “proof” of disability and therefore a need for accommodations. Changing this part of the system is a long-term, ongoing project that requires collaboration of many offices and the navigation of the law. It is the biggest fish to fry and one goal we did not reach during the duration of the semester. 

Another goal that we were unfortunately not able to reach during the duration of this semester was improving the response times of SDS. 2 out of 9 students reported a lack of response to emails, and several other students reported issues w/ email response times to us personally. We believe that the delay of a response to student inquiries is a major barrier to students receiving the accommodations that they need. Unfortunately, the email communication we received from SDS expressed little to no interest in fixing this issue, as they believe their office is not at fault. 

The goal that we were able to accomplish was education through advertising. We created a poster, advertising SDS and the services they provide. At the bottom of that poster, we wrote about our mission as a group of reform and included a QR code to a website that we created. This poster got lots of traction, and was noticed around campus; So much so that SDS became upset at our group for “falsely impersonating an official university office”. In the end, the posters were taken down, but we still gained lots of traction beforehand, with our QR code getting over 20 scans. We plan to re-design the poster and repost them next semester, as this project does not stop here. We may not have reached all our goals, but we will continue to work until we do so. 

Our website

https://a33217.wixsite.com/my-site

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The Struggle With Student Health Insurance

Health Insurance Groups Blog

The problem our group will be addressing is if universities are helpful in providing students with accessible healthcare. Our main focus will be on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Our rationale comes from how health insurance coverage should be a major part of what universities provide for students, especially when students live on campus or spend hours here if they commute from home. UMBC student health insurance comes in two main versions:

  1. Students who are enrolled in a student health plan, normally get health coverage. They do this by enrolling in the Health Insurance Marketplace (Health care coverage options for college students).
  2. Different varieties of health plans with certain stipulations:
    1. Dependents under 26; essentially still relying on parents
    2. Dependents for people over 26; applies for coverage with parents or stays on their own plan
    3. Lastly, no one claims you as a dependent; may be living away from parents

So, what needs to change in order for students to get the health insurance they need? Colleges/universities should help college students with understanding health insurance plans more. Essentially proper transition preparation is desperately needed (Rea et al.). It is the students who live away from home need the transition support the most.

The goal of our group is to make health insurance more accessible to UMBC students, requiring us to answer certain research questions. A few questions we came up with were: We need to research how student health insurance is structured and how much? Who is required and not required to have school insurance? Are the multiple options of insurance available?

There are many setbacks and stipulations that students experience when looking for the right health insurance program. According to Rea, Kelly, the vast majority of the students around the US have reported that “someone” taught them to manage their own health care needs. Lack of information about health care options among students, or lack of details about managing mental health (managing stress, anxiety, and panic attacks).. Since students are given the sole responsibility of acquiring their health insurance plans they are lacking the variety of different options related to insurance plans. This lack of information creates further decrease in the students mental health.

This does not only apply to in-country students but international students as well. International students are required by law to carry health insurance. There are no exceptions to this rule. Both students in-state and out of state are encouraged to enroll in student health insurance at UMBC. All UMBC F-1 visa students will be automatically enrolled in UMBC’s student health plan, and will be automatically billed accordingly. In order to expand health insurance resources UMBC should have other methods of awareness in comforting students on choosing the best health insurance plan. Methods such as workshops about details of healthcare insurance among UMBC students. Finding unique ways encourage students to take part in workshops or clubs that relate to healthcare insurance. Lastly, provide flyers or surveys for all students. 

Having a student health insurance plan has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of student health insurance are: A) Having access to local provider networks in the area. B) Having convenient access to the Retriever Integrated Health at UMBC. C) Lastly, students’ financial aid packages may be able to cover the costs for student health insurance. However, the disadvantages of student health insurance are that for non-emergency care outside of a certain radius around UMBC, a referral from a student health facility may be necessary if the student is outside 56 miles of UMBC.

The Health insurance group achieved their goal by creating a poster/infographic that summarized the important aspects of student health insurance and put them around campus. We want to provide more information that relates to healthcare insurance. Many students might not know their rights when it comes to receiving their health insurance so we created this infographic for student guidance. 

In conclusion, we started the project with a very big goal in mind which was to expand the coverage of student health insurance. After some research, we quickly realized that doing that was beyond our capabilities so we scaled down. With our poster we hope to have made more students more aware of their options and more involved with student health care at UMBC.

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Addressing the Lack of Proper Sexual Education for University Students

Sex education has historically been a topic of contention in many countries. It is crucial for individuals to have a comprehensive understanding of sexual health and wellness to lead healthy lives. Unfortunately, many educational institutions lack proper sexual education, especially at the university level. This blog post will aim to address the goals of our project, the problem of inadequate sexual education for university students, the research we conducted, and the obstacles we faced.

The Problem

The lack of proper and correct sexual education for university students is a widespread problem that needs to be addressed. Comprehensive sexual education is essential because it increases consent, inclusivity, and safe sex, whilst also decreasing sexual violence. It is also crucial to have inclusive sex education that allows people to explore and have a better understanding of themselves, even if they are asexual. Additionally, proper sex education also encompasses the pleasure aspect of sex, which encourages people to learn about their bodies and sexuality. Lastly, it teaches the emotional aspect of sex and how to tell when someone is ready to have sex physically and emotionally.

The Specific Goal of Our Project

Our goal is to create an event that brings experts into the university to discuss sexual education. This event will enable students to have access to proper sexual education. To complement the event, we created posters with fun facts about sex for pleasure and more serious aspects. We also had a panel of students and experts to better engage with students. By taking the questions and experiences of students and peers, we facilitated an educational conversation about sex education and wellness. Being able to have an open conversation about sex will help students learn about consent, pleasure, and basic sexual education.

Research

We conducted research on other schools to see if they had sex education projects and how they were conducted. We also searched for surveys on sexual knowledge that had been conducted at our university. We looked at previous sexual education events to see what worked and what didn’t. Additionally, we researched good techniques to entice people into an event and what information needed to be discussed in the event. Finally, we researched inclusive sex, which includes queer sex, sex with disabled folx, kink/BDSM safety, and more.

Who Might We Enlist to Help with Our Project?

We collaborated with WILL and combined our ideas for the sex education event. WILL provided funding, food, and a room to hold the event. We collaborated with WILL members to create a panel of both students and experts. We brought in a fetal surgeon who is also a lactation consultant to discuss the anatomy of sex, and a sexual health professional to talk about the emotional aspects of sex.

Obstacles and Strategies to Overcome Them

One of the biggest obstacles we faced was getting people interested in the event. Sex education can be a taboo topic and a bit embarrassing for some people. To overcome this, we advertised the event well and made it enticing. We made the event fun for students by playing jeopardy, providing food, and giving away prizes.

Conclusion

Sexual education is a crucial aspect of a healthy lifestyle. At the university level, sexual education is particularly important as individuals may be engaging in sexual activity for the first time. Our project aimed to address the lack of proper sexual education for university students by creating an event that would engage students in an educational conversation about sex education and wellness. We collaborated with WILL, conducted research, and overcame obstacles to make the event a success. Our hope is that by addressing the problem of inadequate sexual education, we can create a more inclusive and healthy environment for all.

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Social Welfare Access for Students

The problems addressed in this project were the inaccessibility of the social welfare system and how to help students find the resources they may need. The social welfare system can be complex to navigate. Difficulties in finding resources could result in a lack of access to needed services. The main goal of the project was to raise awareness of the difficulties of the welfare system and centralize available resources. I chose to go with a flyer that features information about the social welfare system and resources available for students.

I started the project with a broad view of the inaccessibility of the social welfare system. The research was focused on who was most in need in the state of MD, deciding on the best way to raise awareness, and finally choosing a focal point. In my research, I found that there was a lot of information to cover, even after scaling down for the state. I decided to direct my focus to students. I found that there were differences in eligibility for students to receive housing and food assistance. Students may not be aware of what they qualify for through the social welfare system or resources available directly through UMBC. At the suggestion of Dr. Kate, I included a QR code on the flyer that links to a google document that gives more details about the resources available.