Starting this semester, students living in campus housing will no longer have to pony up for each load of laundry they run. Campus has now incorporated laundry costs into housing contracts for residential halls and apartments that use shared facilities.
According to campus spokesperson Adam Ratliff, students will now have to manage only a “simplified push-to-start-system,” instead of paying to start each cycle.
Ratliff did not directly answer a question about how much the inclusion of laundry costs in housing contracts would increase the cost of campus housing.
However, Ratliff acknowledged that housing costs have increased over the previous academic year. He said this was not a result of the inclusion of laundry service, but that housing costs often change in response to rising operational costs, the cost of goods, maintenance and more.
“We’ve taken student feedback into account when making this decision to provide this new amenity — access to more affordable laundry was important to many students we’ve heard from,” Ratliff said in an email. “This is designed to simplify an everyday part of campus living while improving the residential experience.”
Freshman Will Turner said he is grateful for this change because when he lived in Blackwell Hall during summer sessions, laundry was not included in his housing costs.
According to Turner, costs per individual load quickly added up, incentivizing him to do his laundry less frequently and in greater amounts at a time. He added that he would often have to cycle his clothes through the drying machines multiple times to dry them.
“I could just totally see firsthand the shift, going from paid to free (laundry). It’s just a total life-changer, and it’s also a lot easier too,” Turner said. “So if it’s anything like the transit (cost included in tuition), then I think I’m definitely going to be overutilizing it. I can do smaller loads, because then the dryer will actually dry and the washer will actually wash.”
Freshman Sydney Leighton and Hazel Cordova, who both live in the Foothill residence hall, also said it’s nice to not stress about paying for each load of laundry.
Cordova added that amid the chaos of freshman year, having one less thing to worry about means a lot.
“I really appreciate the free laundry because it might seem like a small thing now, but as a college student living on their own for the first time, it’s the little things that really make a big difference,” Cordova said. “It might just be $2.50 to somebody else, but that’s with each wash, and it just saves an extra expense. I know a lot of people feel the same way, and it makes living on campus feel a lot more manageable.”