It’s a Tuesday afternoon, you’re wearing the same pants for the third time this week and it has become evident that laundry is long overdue. Of course, being a resident of Memorial House, laundry day is no easy task.
You carefully pick out a two-hour window in your schedule and lug your 20-pound bag of clothes across the courtyard and into Gillette House. Your spirits are high as you enter the laundry room; however, you are met with utter disappointment. Once again, every machine is full and it will be another half hour before one opens up.
It took you two more trips that day to locate a house with a suitable washer — one that wasn’t full, broken or sounding closer and closer to explosion by the second. For nearly all Vanderbilt first-year students, this is an unfortunate yet familiar event: Even those with laundry rooms in their houses are forced to share their own machines with two to three other houses at a time, creating a problem for everyone as laundry day erupts into full-fledged warfare.
As a Sutherland House resident myself with a laundry room a mere elevator ride away, I am more than blessed to not have to fret about accidentally leaving my socks behind on the quad grass for all to see. But, this fact does not prevent me from having to fight alongside my Commons counterparts for the chance to wear a clean shirt. Even when I am capable of obtaining a washer, if I have not returned to my clothing before the final millisecond of my timer, I can expect my clothes to be tossed on the floor — or on the table if my housemate is feeling generous.
While this regularly recurring phenomenon only gets me more excited to enter the sophomore class next year, it is now apparent that my experience on the laundry day battlefield is far from over. Kelsey Cleveland, a junior, was very excited for her housing this year. She was assigned to Carmichael College, the brand new dorm on campus; however, she was quite disappointed when the newness seemed to wear off almost immediately:
“[During] the first two weeks, there were already some dryers that were out of order.”
Though she has expressed there being more laundry machines in her upperclassmen house compared to Gillette from her first year, competition for them remains high as the ratio of washers and dryers to students continues to be unbalanced.
Considering that Vanderbilt requires students to live on campus for all four years, it is imperative that they do more to accommodate this sanitation crisis. While I am only a few months into my contract as a student, if I am to continue living without the guarantee of consistent laundry access for the rest of my college career, I can at least be provided with a proper means of washing my clothes.
Though Vanderbilt has continuously highlighted their yearly updates to the dorms, it is not new paint we need, but rather new necessities. Without real funding towards expanding and improving our laundry rooms, students will only continue to be forced to resort to the oddest hours of the night just to smell presentable. As a university that has led the rankings for happiest students in the past, I most certainly believe the laundry rooms should be a core priority: How can a student be at their best mental state when they are so preoccupied with trying to find an open washing machine that they cannot fit in a good night’s rest? One should not have to sacrifice their personal hygiene for a proper slumber.
Additionally, students should be capable of washing their clothes at convenient times without having to worry that the only way to do this is by paying for the Tide Laundry Service. While this service may seem like a generosity for those not compelled to do their own laundry, students who simply do not have time in their schedules to wait for an open machine may be forced to pay for a necessity that should be free. There should always be enough washers and dryers available for all students to do their laundry when they wish — and how they wish — with no harm to their wallets.
While the laundry crisis may seem irrelevant in comparison to the issues plaguing the rest of the world, it is much more dire than Vanderbilt may believe it to be. In addition to its major offenses, it only encourages other problems. As students have to go out of their way to wash their clothes, those with busier schedules may have to resort to reusing dirty bedding or clothing to have time to complete other tasks that they view as a higher priority, such as studying for a midterm exam. Personally, I was faced with this problem myself when it came time to wash my bedding, as I needed two machines to fit both my sheets and my comforter. Because of this issue, it took multiple days for me to finally coordinate my busy schedule with that of open washers, forcing me to sleep on a bed in need of cleaning for much longer than I would have liked.
This uncleanliness isn’t just smell-inducing, but it also puts students’ health at risk. Dirty clothing and sheets are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, making a student even more vulnerable to sickness than they already are simply living in the same house as 100 other people. If Vanderbilt wants their students functioning at their best, they cannot continue to leave them at risk of becoming incapacitated from their very own clothing.
To rectify this problem, Vanderbilt can look towards a variety of solutions. One of these potential solutions includes the investment in higher-tech laundry machines that can help to both reduce wait times and the frequency in which they require an “out of order” sign. Despite expenses being a big reason for why Vanderbilt may not be working hard enough to supply more washers, new equipment may actually save the university money: They will not need to be fixed so frequently, and many companies have incorporated water-saving efficiency into their products. Partnering with technology companies such as CALECO could be another viable option, as many laundry innovators have revolutionized the laundry process, incorporating apps into their machines to alert students when their washing is completed. With this aid, students will not have to worry about offending another if they remove clothes from a finished washer, as students will be held more accountable for grabbing their laundry on time.
With this ever-growing list of consequences from a lack of an acceptable wash room, there is simply no denying that Vanderbilt has a laundry crisis. Let me tell you, it is very hard to make friends when your own stench acts as a personal people-repellant. End the war on washing!
