By Faye Dorman
Elm Staff Writer
Doing laundry in a dorm has never been fun, but the experience does get significantly worse when the mound of laundry you accumulated from procrastination is still wet after the third run through the dryer. Despite sounding like a freshman year horror story, the problem has been plaguing the upperclassmen of Washington College on and off for the past semester. On the third floor of Sassafras Hall alone, there have been times when both dryers and one of the washers were out of commission, leaving an entire hallway scrambling to fit into the lower floor’s routines.
According to the WC website, students looking to live in Sassafras Hall for the next academic year are paying up to $10,788 a year to have laundry machines that somehow manage to burn and rip machine washable clothing without even drying it, and at least one washer that likes to make soup with clothes, rather than draining at the end of a cycle. The frustrations only grow as WC pushes to have all of its students on campus despite continuously having unappealing, lackluster housing options for upperclassmen at increasingly high rates.
Sophomore Kailey Drain, who lives in Chester, has been frustrated by the situation since the fall.
“We have had at least one first-floor washer down all year, and both dryers still do not dry fully in one cycle. Only when I email College faculty does the situation seem to resolve, but the washers often break weeks later,” Drain said. “I am very disappointed in the College’s lack of communication and effective solutions. I have not recommended Chester to underclassmen for this exact reason next year.”
While many complaints and inquiries are usually sent straight to Buildings and Grounds, some students seek help from their RA first, leaving them to play messenger in the mess.
Amelia Watson, the current CA of Sassafras Hall, is very familiar with this kind of situation.
“I have received complaints about different washers and dryers throughout both semesters,” Watson said. “I also had several issues last year as an RA in Caroline with a dryer that took over a month to get fixed.”
She suspects that the current issues in Sass are machine-based issues from overloading washers, such as worn out or broken belts, a feature in both washers and dryers.
Watson also mentioned the misdirection of students’ frustrations that often come back on her and other members of ResLife.
“I have certainly been blamed for [them] not working,” Watson said when asked about other members of ResLife feeling strain or being harassed for similar problems. “I think many students do not understand the process for getting washers and dryers fixed and often assume that the fix is from B&G or ResLife, but unfortunately it is an outside company so we need to wait until they will come to campus.”
Since WC uses an outside vendor for laundry needs, there is a gap in knowledge between students and ResLife, who many students expect to resolve these kinds of issues.
Amy Sine, Director of Residential Life, remarked that she was not exactly sure where most of the laundry problems were happening, but she does know who receives that information.
“We do have a [two]-tiered reporting system for issues,” she said. “Students can submit a work order or they can scan the QR code on the machines themselves to report directly [to] the company.”
Sine also emphasized the common struggle of students assuming someone else has filed a report, leaving the problem to sit even longer.
Watson made a similar remark about reporting the problems, urging students to scan the QR code that communicates directly to the maintenance company, as well as alerting the proper RA/CA and other students impacted by the issue.
“ResLife and B&G are both aware of the issues with washers/dryers,” Sine said when asked if she knew if B&G could make small repairs to the machines. “Because fixing them is through the washer/dryer company, as far as I know all [who] can do is put in an additional call.”
Buildings and Grounds were not available to comment on their ability to work on the appliances, but students can still submit work orders regarding the washers and dryers.
Students might feel reluctant to reach out to an outside company for help, but both the QR codes and the website listed on the signage in the laundry rooms are active and easy to use.
According to the Caldwell and Gregory website, the company provides services across 25 states, mainly focusing on college dormitories. They not only sell the appliance, but perform upkeep, and claim to have a 24/7 customer support line, though this might not equate to an experienced repairman driving out to Chestertown at 2AM. Navigating through the website, nearly every webpage directs you to a representative or a service request, making it simple to submit a work order for any concerned students.
Despite the support from staff on campus and from an outside vendor, the laundry problem has been a pretty tough pill to swallow for many students. But at the end of the day, the laundry problems are not a result of WC’s negligence, but rather something a little more souring, the students.
Both Watson and Sine urge students to stop overloading the appliances because nearly every time the washers flood or the dryers start to scream, it is because the belt turning the appliance has been pushed too far once more. As the appliances continue to be fixed and then broken a week later, maybe consider splitting up the laundry pile that consists of an entire wardrobe. Perhaps taking the extra hour to run two loads will prevent the trip down to the first floor when the top floor dryers are unplugged.
Photo Caption: Chester residents have been left no options but to leave their clothes out to dry due to malfunctioning washers and dryers throughout the building.
Photo by Longan Monteleone