Author: Andrea Cornelius
Dorms across campus saw an increase in laundry prices over the weekend of Sept. 20-21. The laundry company Oxy uses, Coin Meter Washer Service (CMW), changed the laundry prices in Pauley, Haines, Braun, Stewie and Norris from 25 cents for both washer and dryers to 75 cents for washers and 50 cents for dryers. In Bell-Young, the prices were raised from 75 cents one dollar for the washers, while the price of dryers stayed at 50 cents.
“Without consulting RLHS or any of the Oxy administration, CMW came and increased the laundry prices,” Assistant Dean of Resident Life and Housing Services (RLHS) Kecia Baker said.
According to Baker, the company said that they received complaints from students about the different laundry prices in different dorms. Upon hearing this, CMW decided to increase prices to the price for digital card-swiping machines (50 cents to dry, 75 cents to wash) in order to make it more even throughout campus.
The company also installed new machines in Pauley without the consent of RLHS, said Baker. Since the renovations of Wylie, Bell-Young and Erdman, there was talk of improving the laundry rooms in dorms such as Pauley, Norris and Haines because these dorms have older machines. According to Baker, RLHS had plans to install digital machines with card swipes as well as stackable machines in these dorms to increase the number of washers and dryers. “But the current laundry rooms were not equipped for this plan and so it was just left,” said Baker.
These plans were discussed with CMW, which was under the impression that there was an agreement to install the new machines with the card swipe capabilities for the dorms with older machines. Sales representative from CMW Alva Sanchez said, “We discussed these plans last year and we got the go ahead to put in new machines.” CMW said they believed that they were following through with their agreement to install new machines in the dorms when they installed the new machines in Pauley.
“Pauley is a hybrid because it is the only dorm in which CMW installed new machines, but there are no card swipe capabilities,” said Baker. This means that over the weekend of Sept. 20-21 Pauley was paying the price of card swiping machines without card-swiping mechanisms. Baker said that only new machines that have the card-swiping capability cost 50 and 75 cents to dry and wash, and that new machines without card-swiping capabilities (such as those installed in Pauley) should cost 25 cents to wash and dry.
The following Monday, Sept. 22, when RLHS was informed of the price change, CMW was immediately contacted and asked to return the prices to the original prices of 25 cents a load for washer and dryers in Pauley, Haines, Braun, Stewie and Norris. “Those dorms that had their laundry room prices raised have been returned back to their original price of 25 cents for washers and dryers,” Baker said.
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