Laundry facilities frustrate students

Students living on campus are finding the residence hall laundry system to be more trouble than it's worth. As the university nears the midpoint of the fall semester, complaints have begun to rise over the residence hall's ability to accommodate students who want to wash their clothes.

Each residence hall has several automated washers and dryers that are activated with the insertion of a laundry card that can be purchased in the first floor lobby. The system sounds simple enough, but it seems that its execution leaves much to be desired.

"The washers don't hold enough, not to mention old detergent can build up and a full load in the dryer won't dry until a second cycle," Smith Hall resident Zachary Bachman said.

Indeed the dryers seem to be one of the most common complaints, as they never seem to properly dry the load inside within its 60 minute long cycle.

"Then they dry after about 30 minutes so you waste 30 minutes that you don't need to dry everything," Bachman said.

The size of the washer is also limited, requiring two complete 40 minute cycles to add up to one full load of laundry, which can become inconvenient when several people need throw in a decently sized load of clothes at the same time.

The aforementioned laundry cards have come under some criticism from the dorm residents as well. The washers and dryers cost 75 cents and 50 cents per cycle respectively and must be activated by the laundry cards bought on the first floor lobby. The cards cost $5 to purchase but only $3 is deposited on the card when it is initially bought. A complete wash and dry combined will cost $1.25. This is excluding any extra cycles that might be needed, making the initial money on the card not last very long.

The system has even managed to frustrate some residents to the point of taking their business elsewhere. Junior Steven Duvall uses an off campus laundromat which he claims is far more convenient than waiting to use the one at his residence hall.

"I use the laundromat down the road because it's faster and cheaper," Duvall said.

In response to the complaints, the third floor Resident Assistant, Fahdl Al-Matari was very clear that there is currently nothing that the Housing Department can do.

"The system is completely controlled by the company [Maytag], we can only hope for faster service from the company itself", he said.