EMILY COWLES
STAFF WRITER
Having to do one’s laundry on campus is something a lot of students deal with, including having to wait for open washers and dryers. The students living in the newly-renovated Mitchell and Newberry Halls have nine washers and dryers, so these students do not have to wait for the machines as much,
Wright Hall has four of each machine that are in very nice condition, but the other south campus dorms are not so lucky. Nisbet/Brazell Hall and Carey/Bonbright Hall each have only two washers and dryers, and these machines are not in the greatest conditions.
One of the dryers in Carey/ Bonbright does not have the handle, and the door is bent so it does not properly close. On top of this, students living in these dorms constantly have to wait for open machines in order to have clean clothes.
As a student living in Carey/Bonbright, the weekly struggles of having to wait for an open machine build my frustration and annoyance. For me, the weekends are a time for homework, practicing music for band and other class assignments or projects, as there is limited time during the actual week to do these things while also attending classes.
Having to wait hours for machines, some of which sit with a students’ laundry in them for hours, is frustrating and annoying because it is inconsiderate to the other students that have to wait for the machines. This could all be resolved if we had more washer and dryers in the south campus dorms.
After the renovations were mostly completed in the dorm halls of Mitchell and Newberry, the amount of washers and dryers purchased and placed in them seems to be a bit much.
It is understandable that there would need to be extra washers and dryers for all the students, but to allow these halls so many and neglect the upperclassmen who were forced over to the south campus dorms is beyond frustrating.
The upperclassmen living in Wright Hall are lucky because they have four washers and dryers that are located in a nice room on the second floor rather than down in a creepy basement with a window that looks out into a closed off room that students cannot access.
In Wright Hall the laundry room has chairs and the room is big, open and bright. A student could sit there and do homework while waiting for their laundry to finish. In the other south campus dorms, there is little room for students to move around, let alone to sit there and work on homework.
It is always awkward to go down into the basement laundry room of Carey/Bonbright on the weekends because there are usually other students down there, and the tight space makes it so that students bump into each other while trying to access the machines.
The worst part is when students remove each other’s laundry from the machines, especially when their clothes aren’t done in the dryers. These actions only build more frustration, as well as impatience, among all the students.
Nothing could frustrate and annoy one more than when they go to get their laundry and find that someone pulled it from the dryer before it was done, causing it to have to go back into the dryer.
Apart from it being frustrating, it is also embarrassing knowing that someone else’s hands have touched your clothes, including your intimate pieces of clothing. Living in co-ed dorm buildings, such as south campus, making this all the more creepy and concerning.
Not having enough washers and dryers, let alone proper working ones, is an issue that should be resolved to better meet the needs of the students who are frustrated by the struggles of trying to time manage just so that they can have clean clothes and keep up with their education.
