Washers in a laundry room
Photo: Chris Doody
BY CHRIS DOODY, STAFF WRITER
Some students at St. Bonaventure University face a weekly battle when doing their laundry.
“I have had people touch my clothes, and put them on top of the washing machine and then I have to put them back into the washer because I feel that’s gross,” said Lily Peterson, a freshman public health major. “It’s uncomfortable for both parties, to have to touch someone else’s wet clothes and for a stranger to be touching your clothes. Be considerate and check on your laundry.”
Peterson said it doesn’t make sense to take out other people’s laundry.
“Students removing each other’s clothes from washers and dryers only delay wash time, and lengthens the process for everyone,” said Peterson.
Taking out other people’s laundry increases wash time, said Jared Smith, director of facilities operations.
“I wish that people would take their clothes out of the washers on time so that clothes don’t pile up and so it leaves more washers open for use,” said Sophia Wolf, a freshman undeclared arts major. “It’s like a battlefield down there just fighting to find an open washer.”
Smith said a large part of the problem with the laundry on campus comes from students neglecting lint traps.
“I know for time purposes no one wants to do two small loads when you can do one big load,” said Smith. “But it actually works faster because it washes faster and it will dry quicker in the dryer.”
Some students said this solution is inapplicable to them as they don’t have enough machines to work with.
“There are two washers and dryers on the fourth floor in Francis,” said Nellie Kopta, a sophomore nursing major. “But the dryers do not work at the same time.”
Some students said it’s not an option to use multiple machines.
“I agree with Smith’s advice that you should do smaller loads,” said Peterson. “But it’s honestly just dangerous down there, you can’t get two open washing machines and not have clothes get moved.”
Too many clothes and too many Tide pods can cause the washers to break down, said Smith.
CSC services – the company that provides and services the washers and dryers on campus – said as long as you do not overload the dryers everything should come dry in one cycle, said Smith.
Some students said that even with a clean lint trap their clothes come out wet.
“Most of the errors have nothing to do with the age of the machines,” said Smith. “People don’t clean the lint traps it doesn’t matter if it’s a brand new machine or not and people overload them with too much laundry,”
The machines on campus are all around four to five years old. They will start being replaced this summer and will all be replaced by the summer of 2026, said Smith.
The freshmen consistently experience more issues with laundry, said Smith.
“The garden houses, and Devrioux Hall all have the same washers as Loughlen Hall, Robinson Hall and Falconio Hall and they break down far less,” said Smith. “It makes sense to us since these students are experienced with the washers on campus.”
However, the machines are not the problem, said Smith.
“I would say 85% of the breakdowns are user-related issues,” said Smith.
Smith said laundry service is important and that they stay on top of fixing broken machines.
“We work with residential life, the laundry is a priority, we don’t want to inconvenience students, we’re constantly on top of it [repairs],” said Smith.
doodycd24@bonaventure.edu
