Laundry to be included in room and board

Laundry — the bane of college existence. The constant worry about whether there are enough quarters soon will no longer be a problem in Truman residence halls.

Beginning in fall 2011, a $72 laundry cost  could be included in room and board rates, and laundry machines in all residence halls will not be coin-operated.

John Gardner, Director of the Office of Residence Life, said students will have keypad access to the laundry room, and the code will be set periodically, and students can do as many or as few loads of laundry as they would like.

"It is the easiest thing for our students," said Gardner. "They won't have to go get coins or have to keep coins around."

The $72 charge comes from the belief that the average student does one load of laundry a week for 32 weeks at $2.25 per full cycle, Gardner said.

Having an included fee in room and board costs is a trend that is becoming prevalent across the country, Gardner said.

The change correlated to residence Life getting a new contract for the laundry services, Gardner said.

‘The cost of new machines is included in the contract," he said. "We pay the company a set amount, and they provide the new machines and the maintenance of it."

This new contract would start July 1, 2011, although the change has not been decided upon officially.

Gardner said the new contract does not have to be approved by the Board of Governors, just some of the administration.

Sophomore Aubrey Crowley, a student adviser in Centennial Hall, said she has been telling prospective students about laundry costs potentially being included in room and board, even though she wasn't aware it hadn't been approved yet.

"I am definitely going to be telling students about it," Student Ambassador junior Emily Lowndes said. "As a student ambassador we are supposed to inform potential incoming students about how Truman operates and its amenities."

Freshman Walker Frantz-Greene lives on campus this year and intends to do the same next year. He said he does laundry, on average, every five to eight days.

Frantz-Greene said he probably has spent between $35 and $45 on laundry throughout the year.

"The effectiveness of the new system will be dependent on every student," Frantz-Greene said. "If there are unlimited uses and a set cost then it will be good for some and bad for others."

Crowley said she could foresee this becoming a problem as the machines potentially could be busier.

While off-campus students could abuse the privilege by obtaining the keypad code, Crowley does not think that would significantly impact the University.

Gardner said he did not find that off-campus use of laundry machines was a problem at  other universities  he looked at that have similar systems.