As students go about their college lives, they end up doing laundry. However, recently a number of on-campus residents have found this regular, mundane task far more difficult than usual, as extended use of machines has led to an extensive number of equipment issues.
“It’s a lot harder to get your laundry done when you just have a few open washers for like 200 guys,” Nathan Melzer, freshman Biology major and Jarrett Hall resident, said. “I have not changed my sheets once since I got here. That’s how bad the crowding in the washroom is.”
With a fall enrollment of 8,388 students and almost 2,000 living on campus, the laundry facilities at each residence hall are under constant use. Due to the overworking of the machines, the university is seeing a large number of malfunctions throughout the campus, resulting in approximately six laundry-related work orders per week, or just over 300 per year, according to the Residential Living Office. After a work order is placed, a response scheduling a technician’s appointment is expected within two days or the company is called again.
“Our technicians will do their best to fix a machine, and will only really replace them if they require a major part or are rendered completely inoperable,” Becky Kanz, Mac-Gray/ASI Regional Account Manager, said.
Mac-Gray/ASI is the company that owns, maintains and replaces the washing machines and dryers throughout campus. Students can take note of the fact, however, that while maintenance is in their housing contracts and costs the university no additional money, the swapping out of machines is not included and would lead to a rise in the laundry cost added to the current residential living fees.
“We don’t ever say [the laundry services] are free, we say that they are at no additional cost,” Cindy Spencer, Senior Director of Residential Living and temporary Cross Hall Resident, said.
Despite many misconceptions, laundry services at West Texas A&M University are not actually free of charge. Instead, the cost, which is calculated by the average number of loads of laundry per on-campus student, is added to the cost of each student’s dormitory fees. According to Spencer, this works out to approximately an additional $27 dollars per student, and it is delegated in the budget as first going towards any issues with laundry equipment before being used on any other budget item.