Doing laundry is one of the most unreasonably difficult tasks to complete in college. At Drew, this could not be closer to the truth.
In the residence hall that I live in, there are only four washing machines and four dryers. This has proved to be a huge inconvenience to people, since it seems that it is impossible to find a time when a machine is available for someone to do their laundry.
Even on weekdays, when you would expect that there would be fewer people worrying about washing their clothes, the machines are usually all taken. This problem could be easily solved if there were more machines available in the laundry rooms. Four washing and drying machines are not enough for all three floors of Brown Hall.
Not only does the number of machines cause issues, but they also function very poorly. In both Brown and Tolley Halls, at least one of the machines is always broken. This leaves even less room for residents’ laundry that needs to get done, and sometimes it is unclear when the machines are even out of order.
Marley Wetzel (‘29) spoke on her experience with this. “I used a washer in the Brown laundry room, and when my washing cycle was complete, my clothes were soaking wet because someone had taken off the ‘out of order’ sign from the machine. It took several full cycles in the dryer to get them even slightly dry.”
It is likely that Wetzel’s experience is similar to many other students due to the ignorance of other residents. “It turns our laundry room into an absolute war zone, and our CA has even been trying to get it fixed for weeks, but has been met with no response,” she said.
The laundry rooms themselves are not entirely the issue. At least in Brown and Tolley, there is a huge problem with students’ etiquette when it comes to doing laundry. Specifically, patience seems to be completely absent amongst many.
Delaney Smith (‘29) said, “One time, when I was doing my laundry, I went downstairs to find that someone had taken my clothes out mid-cycle and left them on top of the dirty washing machine. It was really annoying because I did not have time to re-wash my clothes and just had to put them straight in the dryer.”
Clearly, some people need to be more aware of others doing their laundry. Yes, it is frustrating for there to only be four of each machine in the laundry room; however, the people who do have their clothes in the washer already do not need to be punished for having claimed one of those machines at the right time.
Overall, there needs to be a serious change made in the laundry rooms here at Drew. The number of machines is not only a major inconvenience, but also causes some to act impatiently and make things even worse for others. Machines that run more efficiently should be added to the laundry rooms so that the task of doing laundry can be made much easier for students who already have a lot on their plates.
Aly Geyer is a first-year who is exploring her major
