By Olivia Guastella | February 24, 2025
UAlbany’s emergency contraceptive vending machine.
Photo Credit: Olivia Guastella / The ASP
Courtesy of the Student Association, the University at Albany now has a vending machine that dispenses free emergency contraceptives for students. The fully operational vending machine is located in the East Lounge in the Campus Center on the Uptown Campus.
This past summer, SA bought the vending machine and customized it to hold emergency contraceptive boxes in preparation for the 2024-2025 academic year, according to former SA Director of Disability and Health Erica Strand, who played a primary role in implementing the vending machine.
Students are able to obtain one emergency contraceptive per week with a swipe of their UAlbany ID card.
“The Student Activity Fee bought the physical vending machine,” said Jalen Rose, President of SA. “The emergency contraceptives themselves were donated for free by the Foundation Consumer Healthcare through a donation initiative.”
The total cost of the project was $11,000, according to Strand. The brunt of the cost was covered by excess Student Association funds.
“I realized we had excess funds left over from the previous fiscal year when it was time to close out our budget,” Rose said. “So, I purchased it with funds from the 2023-24 year to save us some money in the 2024-25 budget.”
The supplies themselves were either bought or donated, which helped limit the fiscal cost of the project. So far, there is a large stockpile of collected emergency contraceptives.
“We are anticipating future donations from those companies and others as we expand our network,” Strand said.
Strand said that if supplies run out, the Student Association will purchase more to keep the vending machine stocked.
Emergency contraceptive vending machines are not an idea unique to UAlbany. Lawmakers are looking to require reduced-cost emergency contraceptive vending machines for all SUNY and CUNY schools. The bill, S2058 in the state Senate and A1372A in the state Assembly, states “This bill will ensure every student has access to affordable emergency contraception on state and city of New York college campuses granting them a fair chance to achieve academically.”
If passed into law, it would quickly and systematically implement this reproductive health resource, as opposed to the decision being left to individual schools.
“This is an opportunity for SUNY and CUNY to be a leader to make public schools a place where reproductive health is as accessible as possible,” said Jenna Bimbi, one of the original drafters of the bill and co-executive director of the NY Birth Control Access Project which works to expand reproductive access and education.
“This is an opportunity to lead and say ‘We are going to find the funding and cut through the red tape to put EC vending machines on every SUNY and CUNY campus in NY,’” Bimbi said.
“We see an opportunity for NY to be a leader,” NY Birth Control Access Project Co-Executive Director and co-drafter of the bill Rochelle Rodney said. “Not only in EC vending machines, but also to be more proactive about policies that can benefit New Yorkers and increase reproductive healthcare access for New Yorkers.”