Sunday, considered a day of rest by many across the nation, is the Brandeisian day of homework. But this Sunday, I foolishly decided it could be more. Today? Today is also laundry day, and unless the gods of laundry fortune smile upon me, I know that I will waste hours questing for a functional laundry machine around campus. Regrettably, I no longer have Pokemon GO, so my miles walked around will not lead to a hatched egg but rather cut into my valuable sleep hours.
Unfortunately, this dire prophecy came to fruition, and I ended up visiting seven laundry rooms before I successfully found a single washing machine in Ziv.
As a person who lives in the Mods, I did not enjoy having to trek all my laundry all the way up campus. If this becomes a part of my laundry routine, I will not be thrilled. At this point, I was ecstatic to spend one of the several currencies more valuable than the U.S. dollar, WHOCASH, in order to get my still wet laundry out of the dryer, halfway across campus. Furthermore, my laundry stunk from a catalogue of old detergents and sported a crust from some remnant of past washes.
Having spent precious hours, vital energy and WHOCASH washing my clothes, I couldn’t help but be a little salty as I put on a freshly washed but wet and wrinkled pair of shorts. In reflection of this day, two major questions come to mind: Firstly, what level of service should be expected, given the amount we, as students, pay for housing?
Secondly, who is responsible for the lack of performing machines? Personally, I have always found the facilities workers to be hardworking and overall wonderful individuals, so I find it difficult to blame them for the deplorable state of disrepair.
My understanding of the current situation is that Brandeis outsources laundry duties to a local company and, I would imagine, taking into consideration the amount of money we pay for housing and housing services, that Brandeis pays this company a fair sum. With this in mind, I would ask that Brandeis either finds a new supplier of laundry services or that the current laundry company ups its game.
Otherwise, I can look forward to many more Sundays spent marauding about campus stealing other students’ laundry opportunities and generally not having a great time.
