Unlike the prices of tuition, textbooks and meal plans, laundry prices are going down. Each machine now costs $1.40 to use as opposed to last year’s $1.75.
Undergraduate Student Government President Cole Lee announced last February that he was undertaking a free laundry initiative. While he didn’t achieve free laundry, Lee worked with the Faculty Student Association and achieved a 20 percent decrease.
“FSA decided to make the following change because they understood that this was a critical issue for students and would be an extremely beneficial change during a time where students face crippling amounts of student loan/debt, textbook costs being astronomical and the cost of living continues to rise,” President Lee said in an email.
The decrease in price was due to numerous requests from students and Lee, according to Angela Agnello, director of marketing and communications for FSA.
“Faculty Student Association (FSA) negotiated a lower rate with the company that provides laundry services on campus to decrease the cost to students,” Agnello said in an email.
While some students are still not satisfied, others are happy with the lower cost.
Eugene Ko, a junior economics major, said the new price is reasonable because laundromats in New York City charge $2.50-$3.00 a wash.
“Some colleges, like St. Johns and Adelphi, offer free laundry machines but their dorm prices are significantly higher so I think [$1.40] is pretty fair,” Ko said.
On the other hand, Arthur Katsev, a business management major in the class of 2016, thinks that it is ridiculous for the laundry to cost more than $0.50 because the machines are small and often broken.
“I think that there should be a completely free or heavily subsidized laundry system ($0.25 max) for student workers (food services, gym) who have required uniforms, aprons, shoes, etc so they can regularly wash their clothes without having to compromise cleanliness/hygiene in the work environment,” Katsev said in a Facebook message.
The price is not the problem, according to Anika Weiss, a freshman journalism major. The real issue is the method of payment.
“My meal plan is unlimited, and I didn’t know I had to set up Wolfie Wallet to do the laundry,” Weiss said. “I have been using my roommate’s card. I just wish they had a Visa thing or something so it wasn’t such a hassle.”
