If you are someone who has experienced irritation as a result of doing laundry on campus, you are not alone. As a third-year student who has lived in both Hamlin and Murphy, I have had my fair share of frustration while doing laundry on campus. Whether it be that there are no available washers or dryers, or that the limited washers and dryers that are available are broken, or that I have to walk all across a building to find a washer or dryer that is free, at times, doing laundry at JCU has proven to be an unlikely struggle.
From those that I have talked to about laundry, having experiences from multiple different buildings, there seems to be a general sense of frustration with the laundry experience.
Lily Panning ‘26, a resident of Murphy Hall, shared, “I have tried to do laundry at odd times, like noon on a Monday, and there are still no washers available.
Riley Woodruff ‘26, a resident assistant in Hamlin Hall, stated, “It’s hard because it feels as if the work orders placed aren’t finished in a timely manner, which gets frustrating because then we can’t use all the machines that are supposed to be available to the building.”
In an interview, Kyle Wolfe, director of the Office of Residence Life, shared, “this is the first that I am hearing [of concerns with laundry].”
To begin, Wolfe shared some common reasons why the washers and dryers are often out of order.
“Sometimes it could be a student overloading the washer and it puts it into an error code. Or that we have to wait for our vendor, CSC, who oversees all the washers and dryers. They come out and make sure that there is nothing wrong with the washer and can reset the code. Sometimes it’s parts. Some of it is just normal wear and tear,” he said.
He further highlighted the procedure that students should follow if a machine is broken, explaining that students should put in a work order through the CSC app.
If work orders are not being solved in a reasonable time, Wolfe said that students should reach out to Residence Life, who will further work with CSC to deal with the issue. CSC is responsible for all laundry matters across campus, so some delays with laundry are beyond the control of JCU. Common reasons for delays include waiting for parts, dealing with other partners/universities, supply chain delays and delays in shipping.
Wolfe also gave more information on why there are only a certain number of machines in each building.
“We take a look at how many students there are living in the space and get the correct number of hookups for washers and dryers. And obviously, we are limited to the amount of physical space that the machines take up.”
With each building holding anywhere from roughly 100-300 students and about eight washers and dryers, the ratio of washer and dryers to students was called into question.
Wolfe said this was more of an issue for facilities, but that “if we saw that there was a concern on the number of machines and students weren’t able to use them, then absolutely [we would add more].”
For some final thoughts, Wolfe explained that “if there are any times that people are frustrated with the laundry or something is going on, I encourage them to reach out to us. They could start with their resident assistant or they could email [email protected]. We want to hear those concerns so that we can work with CSC if there are issues.”
“If you see something, say something. If you see a laundry machine isn’t operating correctly and has an error code, say something and put in a work order through CSC so that we can make sure it gets handled.”
Even though the laundry situation can be very inconsistent, it is not necessarily in the university’s or Wolfe’s control. Having more washers and dryers put into each building would be very beneficial, but this is not something that can be done. For now, students should be mindful when doing laundry (don’t overfill, switch your clothes in a timely manner) and always report broken machines so that they can be fixed as soon as possible.
