The spooky scary moldy laundry machines. Graphic by Eliana Prellwitz.
ELIANA PRELLWITZ | OPINION COLUMNIST | eprellwitz@butler.edu
Pale tiles, balls of hair scattered on the floor and slightly molded washers haunt the Butler dormitories. Walking into one of the many laundry rooms sends a chill down students’ spine. They wait for a machine, not knowing if their clothes will even be clean after. The realities of the laundry are haunting.
My first few times using the washers were not as I expected, and have only gone downhill since week one. I felt like I arrived at a house I did not know was haunted. At first nothing happened, but over time more and more instances tested my sanity.
Initially the machines were clean, and so was my clothing, but now I dread my Friday mornings, scared for my clothes. Once I walk to the third-floor Irvington laundry room, I find the least moldy washer, since the others are filled up with wet laundry stewing, cob webs and dust bunnies settling on the machines doors. I sit and hope for that frightening forty minutes, waiting to see if my clothes are dirtier than before — but unfortunately that usually is the case.
Hayden Hewgley, a first-year risk management and insurance major, lives in Fairview and complains of being worried about how his peers will treat his clothes.
“I hate how people take my laundry out,” Hewgley said. “On multiple occasions I have been walking up and my stuff is laying on the ground. That really sucks. I understand if someone is leaving it for an hour, but I am actively walking up.”
Other students, like Hewgley and myself, complain about how our peers treat the machines and the room itself, wishing all students would use these shared spaces with more respect. But sadly, our machines are dirty and so are our clothes. It’s worrisome how little respect we have for our shared spaces and each other.
Micayla Campagna, a first-year special and elementary education double major, discussed her problems with the laundry rooms at Irvington.
“I was washing my comforter, sheets, pillowcase and blanket,” said Campagna. “The machine turned on fine, that was okay, but it ended up not doing the spin cycle. I was like, okay it should be fine, but it was soaking wet. I put it in the dryer. Put it on regular heat for the designated amount of time. And it didn’t work. I did that another three times, and it was still soaking wet.”
Campagna had to pay over ten dollars for a singular load of laundry.
I cannot even count the amount of times I scattered my clothes in my dorm to let them air dry because I refuse to pay for another dryer cycle. And to be honest, I want my clothes out of the nasty machine as soon as I can. My room has been riddled with wet clothes hanging in odd places because the machines are not doing their jobs.
Campagna expressed her outrage that so many feel about laundry not being covered in tuition costs.
“My friends and I are spread coast to coast, like Arizona, South Carolina, Milwaukee, no one had to pay for [laundry],” Campagna said. “My debt at the end of four years is going to be a solid $100,000, and I could be using [the laundry cost] to pay off my debt.”
Campagna is angered every time she has to pay for her laundry despite giving enough to the school for it to be covered. Hewgley also shared his frustrations with the costs of the laundry.
“I have some nicer clothes, and obviously with that some of the dyes can mix,” Hewgley said. “So I have to separate them by color which ends up to me spending way too much money. Which really sucks because it’s $20 plus each week, and sometimes I have to do laundry multiple times a week.”
And they aren’t the only ones.
Sami Mullett, a senior psychology and Spanish double major, shared similar stories.
“I’m not a huge fan of the cost,” Mullett said. “I’ll be honest, laundry should be included in our tuition. And frankly I completely agree, laundry is overly expensive, and causes stress and tension in students’ lives, all of which is completely unnecessary. Even Xavier has us beat.”
The laundry system is covered in housing at Xavier University, stated on it’s auxiliary services page — meaning their students wash their clothes and bedding without out of pocket costs unlike Butler students. How are we supposed to beat Xavier with dirty clothes?
Each time I informed my interviewees about Xavier’s covered laundry costs, they all shared the same reactions: frustration, annoyance and anger. Our beautiful university, providing us with opportunity after opportunity, is also inflicting us with cost after cost. And unlike Xavier, and a whole list of other rivaling universities, we as students have to pay atrocious costs every week just for our laundry to be done poorly.
Personally, I am upset that my tuition is not being used wisely by the university. I am upset that my fellow students treat the rooms with little respect. And I am upset by the universal experience of terrifying laundry stories. This is our home, not a pig pen. Laundry is a necessity to a clean and healthy lifestyle, and should not cost me $10 or more a load, for partially washed, damp, smelly clothes, when I already pay thousands of dollars a year. This university can do better, and should do better. I am tired of hearing campfire level scary stories about the horrors of the laundry room.
