Northwestern hopes to replace every washing machine in all on-campus undergraduate residence buildings by the end of Winter Quarter, according to Ryan Reinhart, the assistant director for residential life.
Many freshman dorms such as Elder Hall received new washers over the summer. Other buildings are scheduled to receive their brand new, front loader, high-efficiency machines within the next few weeks.
But students still have plenty of complaints about the facilities on campus, from the locations of laundry rooms to the new washers.
Communication freshman Sean Gransee has several suggestions to improve laundry facilities, including putting at least one washer and one dryer on each floor, eliminating time limits on machines and getting washers that have small, medium and large load options.
The new machines are efficient but have a tendency to rip clothes, Gransee said.
“We got an e-mail through our listserv saying, ‘Avoid using this machine, it will eat your clothes!'” he said.
The University is installing new machines as part of a larger plan to change the laundry system. Last April, the University installed LaundryView, an online monitoring system that allows students to see which of their dorms’ machines are not being used.
“When we changed the system to LaundryView, that meant they needed to change several things behind the scenes,” Reinhart said.
These changes included reworking the machines’ payment systems. On-campus laundry facilities began running on CBORD electronic machines, which require payment with Munch Money to use the machines. Students could previously pay with money on their WildCARDs.
Despite the inconveniences, LaundryView has been well-received by students, Reinhart said.
“Students have told me they have it on their phone, that they check it,” he said. “They’re taking advantage of the technology.”
Medill sophomore Alyssa Mercado said many residents in her dorm, Allison Hall, do not check to see what time they should remove their laundry, she said.
“No one listens to the online reservations,” she said of LaundryView. “I always feel a little guilty taking people’s stuff out but it gets to a point where you have to.”
The hassle of doing laundry on campus was one of the top issues reported in the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee student feedback survey, a UBPC member and Weinberg sophomore Naveen Nallappa told The Daily in November.
The University is still discussing plans to improve campus laundry, but there are bigger issues such as space and electricity to worry about, Reinhart said. If funding is approved, dorms may get more machines, he said.
“Some buildings have far greater demand than others for more washers and dryers,” he said. “I know they’re looking at the need right now.”
