As if college tuition, room and board, books, and the required freshman meal plan weren’t enough money to pay for an education, college students must also pay for every load of laundry they do.
The average college student pays around a dollar and fifty cents to wash his or her clothes and another dollar and fifty cents to dry them, not including the cost of detergent and/or bleach. If a student does a load of laundry twice a week, that is six dollars a week spent on laundry, if not more. Therefore, the average college student spends at least two-hundred dollars on laundry each year.
At many large universities, after first year, students move into off campus housing and get away from the expense of dorm laundry, but at Grove City College there is no real off-campus option. Most people stay on campus all four years and will end up paying around eight hundred dollars for laundry in total.
While talking to my RAs, they told me how loud the machines were, and how often the dryers wouldn’t even work so they had to put their clothes in multiple times, wasting time, money, and electricity.
But this year at Grove City College, President McNulty announced that because of an agreement with outside vendors for washer and dryer leases, new washer and dryer machines would be put into every residence hall on campus, and each student would be allowed to wash and dry his or her clothes free of charge. He also announced that students will be able to enjoy significantly enhanced laundry room communications through their smart phones. For example, students are now able to:
- – Check for available machines
- – Receive a text when certain machines are available
- – View the weekly statistics chart of laundry activity to determine the higher and lower demand times in the laundry room.
- – Receive a notification when a started machine is finished.
Because Grove City is so in touch with their student body, they are able to address problems that larger universities cannot. Putting their students first is something that makes Grove City special. Grove City is willing to go above and beyond to give their students the best that they possibly can. So, save those quarters for the vending machine and thank God for a college that cares.