Logan Dinkins, Contributing Photographer

The Yale College Council’s health and accessibility team announced earlier this month that it would expand its distribution of free reproductive wellness kits around campus and invited students to vote on new self-serve pickup locations.

The kits — which contain Plan B, condoms, lubricant and pregnancy tests — are a collaboration between YCC Health and Accessibility Director Sabrina Guo ’27, Deputy Policy Director Richelle Chang ’28 and Nimisha Srikanth SPH ’25 GRD ’31, a School of Public Health student who launched the original Reproductive Wellness Kit program in 2024.

“At the past two YCC debates, reproductive health access was a recurring theme among students,” YCC Vice President Jalen Bradley ’27 wrote to the News. “The leadership from Nimisha, Sabrina, and Richelle turned those conversations into concrete action.”

In a joint statement emailed to the News, Guo and Chang wrote that the new system builds on years of student advocacy for reproductive accessibility at Yale. The program aims to offer discreet, appointment-free access to reproductive health products in central locations, they wrote.

Students can now vote on placing kits in new locations, such as Bass Library, the Good Life Center, the women’s center, residential colleges and YC3, or Yale College Community Care, offices.

“Students want convenient, discreet, appointment-free access to essential reproductive health products,” Guo and Chang wrote. “Our goal is to create choice, dignity, and consistency in how care is accessed — because student wellness should never be a matter of chance.”

Srikanth, who founded the Yale program after running a similar service as an undergraduate at Texas A&M, said in an interview that she began the initiative with grant funding and donations. In its first year, Srikanth said that the wellness kits were “mainly” requested by graduate students. 

“I started up this kit service in January of 2024,” Srikanth said. “I really wanted to make it more systemized and widespread, which is where we are today.”

The new collaboration with YCC, she explained, will help expand the program to undergraduates and formalize a cross-campus system of distribution.

In addition to expanding the kits program, the health and accessibility team plans to pilot a “wellness vending machine” stocked with emergency contraception, condoms, Narcan, allergy medication and other health essentials. 

Guo wrote to the News that the vending machine’s cost will initially be covered by the YCC health and accessibility team’s budget. It may also draw funds from the YCC Senate or administrative collaboration, she wrote.

In 2018, the YCC Senate passed a bill to fund an emergency contraception vending machine on campus, but Connecticut state law at the time prohibited such dispensers. The restriction was lifted in 2023, and Guo later testified in favor of a state bill to provide funding for emergency contraception vending machines across Connecticut’s universities.

“Reproductive access at Yale has a long — and often complicated — history,” Guo wrote. “This work reflects what student leadership can achieve when it bridges policy vision and legislative action, listens to our students, while understanding institutional limits and identifying ways to fulfill YCC’s mission of service.”

The email announcing the survey, sent to the student body on Oct. 13, also included updates on other health and accessibility priorities, including digitized student IDs, shuttle route improvements and expanded access to mental health counseling.

“It is always great to see the YCC teams promoting health and wellness on campus, especially in such creative ways,” Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd wrote to the News.

Voting for kit locations remains open, with the first round of feedback expected to inform placements later this semester.