The University of Michigan has installed five health and wellness vending machines across all three campuses in the past two months. These vending machines include emergency contraception, condoms, Naloxone nasal spray, rapid COVID-19 tests and over-the-counter medications.
The idea for these vending machines was inspired by other universities and pushed forward by a 2022 University task force dedicated to protecting access to reproductive health care on campus after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision struck down federal protections for abortion. The vending machines are sponsored by University Health Services and Wolverine Wellness.
The first vending machine was placed on the fourth floor of the Michigan Union in late January. Since then, the vending machines have expanded to the School of Public Health, Taubman Health Sciences Library, Renick University Center at UM-Dearborn and Harding Mott University Center at UM-Flint. Once the new over-the-counter oral contraceptive pill is available from manufacturers, it will be added to all of these locations.
Student feedback was also central in the planning process. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Mary Jo Desprez, director of Health Promotion and Wolverine Wellness, said the University wanted student needs and ideas to shape this project.
“There was a really intentional effort to get student feedback along the way from the very beginning, including the vending machines,” Desprez said. “We had some ideas, but then we actually took those ideas to a group of student leaders and sent out some surveys to just see (if) this (is) what (students) are looking for? I also think the thing that we have all committed to is just letting it evolve to see what actually is in demand.”
Students were included in initial brainstorming sessions to create a short list of viable locations and were given the opportunity to rank these potential locations and provide pros and cons. Desprez said students expressed a preference for the Union as the first location.
“The students overwhelmingly thought that the pros outweigh the cons for (the fourth floor of the Union),” Desprez said. “Some other (preferred locations) were the library, North Campus, so we definitely tried to cast the options out wide and then look at all sorts of those particulars that you have to find out about what’s actually a viable place. So it evolved a little bit from the options and then we got student input.”
Desprez said the vending machine’s human-free interaction provides privacy and increases its accessibility to students.
“One of the really cool things about the vending machine is it can actually have more expansive hours,” Desprez said. “We’re in students’ off hours. It’s not when they’re running around in class. The big thing it does is really keep us to our commitment of improving access and creating more options for access.”
In an interview with The Daily, Robert Ernst, chief health officer and associate vice president for health and wellness in Student Life, said University Health Services has been focusing on access to reproductive health care even before Roe v. Wade was overturned. They have worked to provide subsidized emergency contraception at the UHS Pharmacy and Blue Markets.
“We have been working on our campus to try and improve access to emergency contraceptives in a number of ways,” Ernst said. “One of those ways had been to try to reduce the financial barrier at our UHS Pharmacy. So we have been, for some time, offering Plan B, (at) not just (the) UHS Pharmacy, but also campus locations like Blue Markets, for instance, at a lower than retail rate.”
The retail price for Plan B is typically around $50, but UHS has been selling it at the wholesale price of $10. Students are able to access Plan B at this price from the vending machine.
Naloxone, a medicine that reverses opioid overdose, is free at all vending machines, funded by a grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Wolverine Wellness Collegiate Recovery Program. Naloxone, along with Plan B, have QR codes with more information and resources for support.
Public Health junior Sarah Slann told The Daily she believes the vending machine initiative will help alleviate some of the financial burden students experience on campus in affording reproductive health care.
“I think that putting them in such a central location on campus makes it a lot easier,” Slann said. “Also a vending machine in the Union on the fourth floor, which not that many people go to, (is) definitely a way to be more discreet.”
At the end of the semester, UHS plans to look at the data and make any necessary adjustments accordingly. Sara Holliday, communications and public relations lead for the chief health officer, told The Daily that UHS plans to expand its marketing initiatives, especially for incoming students in the fall semester.
“We’re hoping to do a much more robust and far reaching awareness campaign, particularly for students who are new to campus in the fall and are still learning where things are, but for current students as well,” Holliday said. “We’re in a soft-launch pilot phase and know that word of mouth is still pretty powerful.”
Daily Staff Reporter Eva Bard can be reached at @evabard@umich.edu.