An email from Residence Life on behalf of Dean Stroud was sent out on July 8, 2013 informing students living on campus that due to “the steadily rising costs of equipment and utilities, … all resident students will be assessed a $75 per semester laundry fee.” Included in the email was the information that this option was the alternate to installing more costly coin or card operated laundry machines. It also stated that this fee would automatically be added to each student’s housing bill each semester. Needless to say, students were not pleased.
No one ever likes being charged more money, so it’s clear that no matter the situation, an additional fee wouldn’t go over well with the students. However, many of these complaints are not unfounded. Many believe the fee to be excessively expensive in comparison to what other schools pay. We here at the Loquitur took it upon ourselves to see what some other schools in the state are paying for their laundry. We found that Eastern, Villanova and Penn State Berks pay a total of $2 for every load they do. Moravian College’s machines charge $2.50 total. University of the Sciences and Millersville University pay a total of $2.75 for every load. Finally, Temple pays a total of $3 for every load done on campus.
Though these schools’ prices vary, the same question comes to mind for all of them: Are they still cheaper than the $75 per semester flat rate at Cabrini? It all depends on how many loads each person does, but if you estimated that a normal student does one load per week, even with Temple’s $3 rates, that only comes out to a total of $45 a semester, $30 less than Cabrini’s flat rate. Granted, every person is different, but logically, you can really only wear so many clothes in one week. After knowing these numbers, is the new laundry fee really practical? That’s a decision that will have to be left up to the students and faculty.
The actual price is not the only problem students have with the fee however. Many upperclassmen have stated that they are upset because they were told laundry would be free upon coming to Cabrini and was one of the reasons they chose to attend. Some have even indicated that they believe that if there need be a fee, let it be imposed on the new students, since the upperclassmen were originally told their laundry would be free. Dissatisfaction
Another large reason for students’ frustration is that many students who live on campus and have their families’ homes close by. This results in students doing a majority of their laundry while at home. Many of these students have admitted to doing their laundry at home almost every time they need to do laundry. Now, these students are being charged for laundry they are not even doing in Cabrini machines.
These are the larger problems that have come to our attention, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others. Regardless, it’s easy to say that the decision to charge for laundry at Cabrini was never going to be a likeable one. But are enough people asking why this decision was made? Everyone was upset by it, but do they know the reasons behind the need for money for laundry? In a time where staff is being cut, fees are being imposed and positions are being combined, are people asking enough questions about their school and their tuition?
