On Oct. 3, I was pleased to receive an email from the Student Government Association informing me that all Smith students now have a $35 yearly stipend for printing: enough to cover 1,750 black and white pages. This is a massive stride towards equity for low-income students and it proves that student demand can have a tangible impact on how the administration allocates financial resources. But printing expenses pale in comparison to the nearly three dollars that students still have to shell out each time they wash and dry their clothes. It’s high time the administration relieved us all of this burden, too.
Room and board at Smith has a sticker price of over $20,000. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that laundry expenses be included under the category of “room.” After all, doing laundry is an essential part of living in the houses. We don’t have to pay extra to use our house bathrooms or communal kitchens, both of which involve similar water and energy usage to washing machines. It makes little sense to apply fees inconsistently. If the administration can recognize that we shouldn’t have to pay to use basic utilities such as toilets, showers or microwaves, why should laundry machines be any different?
The shift to college life is incredibly financially taxing when so many students are used to living at home and having access to shared family items. Room and board excludes the costs of books, school supplies and transportation to and from Smith, not to mention toiletries, groceries and other personal items. All of these additional expenses can be overwhelming for low-income students, especially when they’re in the midst of this stressful transition. Charging them to clean their clothes adds unnecessary weight to their burden.
Although it is crucial to discourage excessive washing of clothes in order to conserve water, the lack of accessible laundry facilities forces many Smith students to delay doing laundry for far too long. This is more than unhygienic; it can be a serious detriment to students’ quality of life. For example, forgoing regular washing of things like sheets and pillowcases can result in the buildup of dust mites, bacteria and fungal pathogens.
The expenses associated with laundry also make socioeconomic disparities at Smith all the more visible and painful. Students with less disposable income are less likely to be able to afford to clean their clothes enough to feel and look fresh. Even if students chose to divert money toward washing their clothes, this might mean having to forgo other necessities like toiletries or school supplies. Students have enough on their plates already. None of us should have to weigh whether we would rather have clean clothes or buy the textbook for our most challenging course.
Despite the high washing and drying fees, which ostensibly go toward maintenance and improving the quality of the hardware, the laundry machines at Smith are far from luxurious. Not infrequently, the dryers in particular will simply fail to dry clothes, scorch a sweater or swallow a sock. This hemorrhages students’ funds, time and energy and often results in damage to their personal belongings, which they must then pay to replace.
Smith recently announced that it will be replacing all washers and dryers with new equipment that is incompatible with Campus Cash — hopefully the improved machine quality will be worth the hassle of replacing all the OneCard readers and hardware and switching to a new mobile app for payment. During the transition, Smith is offering free laundry in order to reduce disruption and stress on the part of students; they should consider extending this courtesy indefinitely.
If Smith really can’t afford to give its students access to free laundry, they should at least find a way to provide this service to lower-income students as part of their financial aid packages. A sliding scale approach may be an effective way to compromise. Essentially, students would pay proportionally to their income, similarly as they already do for tuition.
However, the arrival of printing stipends casts a shadow of doubt on Smith’s ability to subsidize student utilities. Some students rarely need to print, choosing instead to work and submit assignments primarily online, but nearly everyone does laundry at least once a week. If Smith can afford to distribute money that isn’t guaranteed to be used regularly by the vast majority of students, surely they could put a few dollars towards a necessary service. Somewhere around $40 per semester would provide about one free load a week to each student. This is only a $5 increase from the $35 now allocated for printing. If given the choice, I would even argue that free laundry should take priority over free printing, since laundry expenses are more significant and far more difficult to avoid.
We give our college enough money as it is. Taking away a tiny fraction of their revenue in the form of laundry fees would be a drop in the bucket for such a well-endowed institution. However, free laundry would have major positive impacts on the lives of most students, especially those who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. It’s high time laundry at Smith became accessible to every student; no one should have to worry about having clean clothes.
