Student Government initiative expands menstrual product accessibility

November 20, 2024
By Lauren Whitesell

Empty or missing menstrual product dispensers in campus bathrooms will soon be a thing of the past thanks to a Student Government bill that ensures these dispensers will be present and stocked in bathrooms across campus. The Cox Science Building, Merrick Building, Murphy Design and the University Center Breezeway will have dispensers installed for the Spring semester.

Kat Hernandez, a senior majoring in history, political science and psychology and current SG Senate speaker of the house, started an initiative to receive consistent and reliable access to menstrual products throughout campus in the fall of 2022, when she was a commuter senator.

Hernandez spearheaded this initiative after noticing that the University was not meeting student need for these products

“I was constantly getting texts from friends asking if I had menstrual products because the bathroom they were in either ran out or didn’t have any at all,” Hernandez said. “I knew that there had to be a way to expand the access to menstrual products and ensure that they were stocked in bathrooms.”

She created and sent out a survey asking students about their experiences on campus and if this was a problem that other students were facing. Hernandez received over 800 responses, which helped her conclude that writing legislation to improve menstrual product access would be beneficial to the UM community.

After her survey gained widespread attention, she began drafting a bill to address this issue.

“It took a couple weeks to get the bill on the floor since I had to workshop it in the Senate’s University Affairs committee, meet with Campus Liaison Council members and contact facilities,” she said.

Even though the bill to install menstrual product dispensers in bathrooms was passed in the SG Senate in November of 2022, it is just now being implemented.


Branden Logatto, a senior majoring in accounting and finance and SG director of university affairs, was a member of the CLC at the time the bill was passed and said that the logistics of implementing the bill did not work out at the time.

“We didn’t have enough information or the administrative support to move the initiative forward,” Logatto said.

Once Logatto took over as director of university affairs, he became directly involved with the initiative and helped make the bill a reality.

“I took over the project and worked with my CLC colleagues Abdul Ahad Ahmad and Zachary Cooper-de Quesada, as well as administrators like John Tallon, the executive director of facilities and operations and James Johnson, the director of housing operations and facilities, to refine the plan and implement it,” Logatto said.

Remaining bathrooms that lack dispensers are expected to have dispensers installed this semester.

“It has definitely been a lengthy process. However, I’m thankful that any progress has been made at all,” Hernandez said.

In addition to her friends who inspired her to take action on this issue, Hernandez credits Dr. Renee Callan, the assistant vice president of student life, and Dr. Heather Stevens, the assistant to the senior vice president for student affairs, with helping her bring her vision to life.

“Without them, this would not have been possible. They supported me so much through the process from helping me make the survey to crafting the actual legislation,” Hernandez said.

Despite how long ago her bill has taken to be implemented, Hernandez is grateful for the opportunity to change campus life for the better.

“It’s been awesome to get to work on something that is so important to so many people,” Hernandez said.

Article from The Miami Hurricane

Student Government takes Freebee’s free ride-sharing services to the next level

February 18, 2025
By Mel Tenkoff

Freebee, the free ride-sharing service on campus, has accumulated 5,500 rides since its launch, nearly 10 times more than its predecessor, SafeRide. Following UM Student Government advocacy, the late-night service has expanded its 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. weekday services to also offer weekend rides.

The transition was driven by collaboration between SG, Parking & Transportation and university administration and is tailored to offer a sustainable solution to late-night transportation.

“Freebee is a perfect example of SG utilizing its position as the ultimate advocate for students to implement changes that directly benefit students,” SG President Roy Carrillo Zamora said. “This is the no-brainer kind of project that SG excels at and that tangibly improves the student experience. I think this is what SG should always focus on.”

In the 2023-2024 academic year, Emmanuel Clemente, the University Affairs Chair at SG at the time, conducted a large-scale student survey and introduced a bill to collaborate with Lyft to provide transportation to and from campus.

Administration rejected the Lyft proposal, so the announcement of a partnership with Freebee at the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year came as a pleasant surprise to SG members and students.

“The SafeRide program has evolved into Freebee, which the University of Miami Parking and Transportation Department put in place in Fall 2024,” the University of Miami said in a statement to The Hurricane. “Freebee custom designed its service area to cater specifically to students and where they frequent. Rides must either start or end on campus to be eligible for the service.”

Following its launch, students responded positively to the service. Less than two months after the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Freebee had provided 396 rides, more than half of the 559 rides SafeRide provided in 2023.

“I would say I use Freebee once or twice a week,” Alissa Spence, a freshman at UM, said. “It allows me to save money on places close to school.”

Even though first-year students are not allowed to have cars on campus, the University provides a variety of alternatives, including Metrorail, Hurry ’Canes Shuttles and others.

Of these options, Freebee’s late-night transportation is key to creating a secure campus. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crimes off campus were 50% more likely to occur at night.

What sets Freebee apart from its predecessor is its “efficiency and effective” use, according to the University of Miami. Unlike SafeRide, Freebee operates through the UMiami App and allows students to request rides, track vehicles and get more accurate pickup times.

Freebee was only available on weekdays between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. but has extended service to the weekends as a pilot program through the spring 2025 semester.

According to UM Parking and Transportation, the department “met with Student Government and the Dean of Students Office to gain feedback on the switch to Freebee. Student input guided the decision for the extended hours now being offered.”

Cecilia Ramirez and Bhavya Sharma, current chairs of the SG Senate University Affairs Committee, helped execute and pass the Freebee bill that expanded its services.

“Senate has been pursuing a free or subsidized ride-sharing service for years now,” Ramirez said. “After the incredible results [of Freebee], we knew we had to expand its availability to the weekends so that more students could benefit.”

As director of SG’s University Affairs Committee and leader of the Campus Liaison Council, Branden Logatto’s role involves bridging student voices and administrative initiatives. When his team saw the success and potential of the ride-sharing program, they worked together to advocate for the expansion to the weekends.

“This academic year, I personally meet monthly with Parking and Transportation Administration, Eli Stephan and Shane Plageman, in addition to my Parking and Transportation Liaisons, Emily Cleary and Layla Hilmi,” Logatto said. “We [are] able to clearly communicate the success of the service to the administration.”

After consulting with Heather Stevens, SG advisor and assistant to the senior vice president for student affairs, SG developed a survey to gather feedback about how students would like to see Freebee expanded.

“We had over 500 student responses, showing administration that the expansion of this service was a priority of the student body,”  Logatto said. “Though we experienced some bumps in the road due to additional funding needed for the service, we were able to work with administration to successfully launch the weekend service of Freebee this past January.”

According to Zamora, SG’s future plans for Freebee advocacy include adding a third environmentally friendly car to the fleet and tracking usage of the service to explore ways to improve the experience.

Article from The Miami Hurricane

1. Napster Program

The University of Miami Napster Program: The University of Miami Student Government was able to bring Napster to it's student population and giving them access to over 700,000 songs. Students are able to download songs without any cost and UM is one of the first six schools in the nation to offer this program to their students. When we first started the initiative, the administration was obviously pessimistic about the whole program. Over a hundred e-mails were sent to random students at both Penn State and the University of Rochester to see how their student body was responding to the new Napster program; luckily all of the responses were positive and insightful. Through discussions with Napster, IT, and administration we were able to come up with a contract that would please all of the parties and from there the University of Miami/Napster program was born. Over the summer and throughout the beginning of the school year, UM and our student government have been featured in the Chronicle for Higher Education, The Miami Herald, Yahoo News, CNN news, South Florida Business Journal, and all the major local news stations. We were one of the only schools in the country to have a student initiative that began this program and we should all be very excited. The year began off with over 10,000 fluorescent flyers being inserted into the First Impression, the first copy of the Hurricane was devoted to Napster, the program was mentioned to all the freshmen at Orientation and the administration continually plugged it at major events. The University and IT saw a large surge of subscribers in the first few weeks with over 2,500 undergraduate students signing up. Over 1,000 circular Napster flyers were posted throughout the memorial classrooms and residential colleges, Public Service Announcements on WVUM, reminders on Ibis News, and most importantly a spot on the UM Homepage. The University is also looking into extending the service into the Law School and the Graduate School in response to requests from their respective Student Governments.


2. Safe-ride program

The University of Miami Student Government has, for the past few years, offered a fantastic shuttle service for the student population. Three separate services have been created through SG and they all offer safe, convenient transportation options for the students. First, the Ibis Ride transports students to the local social areas on Thursday nights. Picking up students on campus, the Ibis Ride runs until 3 a.m. Second, the Halloween Ibis Ride has brought safety to the students over the past two years. Running from 8 to 3 a.m., the Halloween Ibis Ride transported 1,600 students this past halloween to Coconut Grove. Finally, the second annual Thanksgiving Shuttle brings UM students to Miami International Airport, free of charge, on the day before Thanksgiving. All of these shuttles are available to any UM student and they have been a huge success for both UM and SG.


3. Book swap

The major program that is now being completed in the UM Student Government is Cane Exchange. Similar to a UM Ebay, Cane Exchange will allow students to be able to buy or sell items from one another, in the confines of the UM Community. With the help of our Webmaster we are really hoping that this site takes the place of the unsightly bulletin boards that are in the residential colleges, the University Center, and the Law School. Cane Exchange will not act as solely a book exchange, but a market for all goods that students may be interested in purchasing or selling, such as televisions, computers, clothes, etc.