A 24-hour vending machine providing emergency contraceptives and other health supplies to students at a low cost will be up and running in Goodrich Hall on Friday of this week, Laini Sporbert, Director of CARE Team Outreach and Health Education wrote to the Record.
The machine is intended to increase student access to health supplies since the closure of the Williamstown Apothecary last November, according to Senior Associate Dean for Administration, Finance, and Strategy Jeff Malanson.
The machine is one of several programs that the Health Center has put in place to increase accessibility to healthcare on and around campus since the Apothecary’s closure. Other new programs include free transportation to pharmacies in North Adams and a same-day prescription pickup program at the Health Center. “We all recognize that the loss of the Apothecary has left the campus facing some challenges in regards to the ease of access to medications,” Director of Health Service Keri Noel told the Record.
The machine will be stocked with emergency contraceptives, condoms, lube, dental dams, pregnancy tests, menstrual products, and over-the-counter medication such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, antacids, and small first aid kits, which will be sold “at cost to what the Health Center and Health Ed pay for them, plus a little bit to cover service fees and some of the rental of the machine,” Sporbert said. Sporbert will be responsible for refilling the machine each week or according to need.
“The primary driver of this is a desire to expand access to low-cost emergency [contraceptives], but the vending machine will have a variety of other health and wellbeing supplies available as well,” Malanson wrote in an email to the Record.
Currently, the Health Center provides free emergency contraceptives during its opening hours on weekdays. Any current College student can request emergency contraceptives and will be offered a consultation with a nurse if they have questions, according to Director of Health Services Keri Noel.
The administration chose Goodrich as the location for the machine because students have 24/7 access to the building, the building can sustain the additional electrical load, and because the space allows for relative privacy, according to Malanson. The vending machine will be located next to the Goodrich elevators, between the coffee bar and bathrooms.
Similar machines have been installed at other colleges, including Amherst and Bowdoin, as a part of efforts to increase student access to reproductive care and over-the-counter medication. Beau Nelson ’25.5, who has worked with the Berkshire Doula Project for four years and has been involved in campaigns to increase access to contraceptives on campus, wrote in an email tothe Record that this machine is especially important given the absence of a pharmacy within walking distance of the College.
