Residence life at The University of Memphis may get a little bit easier this fall.
The residence life and dining services committee is proposing to change the way U of M residents do their laundry in next year’s budget proposal.
“We’ve suggested free laundry in our proposal and if it gets passed, students would be able to do laundry in their residence halls completely free of charge,” said Peter Groenendyk, associate director of residence life and dining services.
Right now, laundry costs 75 cents per load to wash and 75 cents to dry, in addition to the initial fee of $2 to obtain a laundry card. Residents put money on the card and then each time they want to do laundry they insert the card and money is taken off.
This system can be a hassle though, according to some students.
“It’s hard to keep up with an extra card and then if you lose it, you have to pay to get another one,” said Freshman Wendy Laybourn, a Richardson Towers resident.
Also, some students think the cost of laundry is entirely too much.
“I cart all of my laundry over to my parents’ house now because I don’t want to pay to wash my clothes,” said Freshman Megan Biggs, a Rawls resident.
The committee conducted some student surveys and noticed a strong interest in free laundry services, according to Groenendyk.
“Rhodes College currently has this plan implemented and it went over well there,” he said. “It’s just a nice amenity to offer our students.”
According to some students, this plan would work well here too.
“I would definitely do my laundry on campus if it were free,” Biggs said.
“This would be a wonderful thing, especially for out-of-state students who don’t have their parents’ houses on which to depend,” Laybourn said.
However, like most freebies,there are strings attached.
“The free laundry would be covered by a slight increase in residence fees,” Groenendyk said.
For such convenience though, some students are willing to pay the price.
“As long as it’s not an increase of $1,000, I’d be willing to pay a little bit extra for free laundry,” Biggs said.
Laybourn agrees the added cost is worth the convenience.
“Doing laundry would be so much easier,” she said. “A small increase wouldn’t matter to me, but of course that would depend on how small “small” actually is.”
