To the Editor:
The laundry facilities at RAHPs are a joke. The washers and dryers are in constant need of repair and they are constantly filthy! I have e-mailed fix@rpi.edu six times, and Residence Life three times, over this semester and last semester about the conditions present there. The only response that I have received is that if I want my money back, I can come to claim it at the Office of Residence Life. Money is not what I am seeking! I want facilities that work. Time is more valuable than money to me.
The problem with the facilities currently is and has been for the last year that two of the washers are usually filled with water and do not complete their cycle. This means you cannot use two out of the six washers available for all of RAHPs residents. Also, one of the dryers does not have a dryer vent hooked up to it. This covers the entire laundry facility with hot, humid air and lint. This means that you cannot fold your clothes in the laundry facility without getting them all linty and having to wash them again. I have personally complained about this to fix and Res Life three times, and nothing has been done to correct it.
Additionally, one of the dryers does not dry. On the eleventh of February, I put two pairs of pants, four shirts, six socks, and three pairs of underwear in the dryer. After the one-hour cycle, the clothes were still soaking wet, like they had just come out of the washer. It should be obvious from the list of clothing that the dryer was not overloaded!
Finally, the trash is constantly overflowing onto the floor as if it is never taken out.
I would like to propose that, due to a price increase from 75 cents to $1, the equipment be replaced with some similar to that in North, Nason, and Sharp to name a few! Students at RPI do not have the time to spend a full day doing laundry due to broken or faulty equipment. From the Spring ’00 semester to the Fall ’00 semester the price to wash and to dry increased from 75 cents to $1; however, the equipment remained the same. How is this justified? Is it to pay for laundry improvements at other campus facilities, or just to line the pockets of RPI? All we, the residents of RAHPs, are asking for is what we pay for every time we do laundry: facilities that work!
Donald Bryce King
ERTH ’01
