Frank Ewere
Staff Writer
As students head towards spring break, lingering anxieties about laundry services continue to trouble students at Florida Southern.
Students have begun to take a negative view of the campus laundry facilities, describing their defective qualities and the frustration that occurs while doing the laundry.
Alex Smith, junior demonstrated unapologetic criticism towards the current situation.
“It’s horrible,” Smith said. Nothing ever works and if it does work it really only does the bare minimum. So it takes around three to four hours just to do two loads of laundry.”
Although some students feel that the machines and their manufacturers need to do better, not everyone feels that way.
“I understand that a lot of students have issues with some of the facilities, but understand that we are under contract with an external company and I think that they do their best,” A.J. Guedouar, Greek Village Hall Director, said.
Students seeking answers to their concerns about the laundry services are not be satisfied with the current knowledge that the company is simply, “doing their best.”
“There are organizations on campus that exist to help take students requests and kind of work with them and move forward with them so I believe Student Government Association would be a great avenue to go through,” Guedouar said. “I think that if students have issues with what’s going on, rather than just complain about it or talk to your friends about it, I think the best way to get things done is to move forward through channels that are already established to help students get what they want on campus.”
The Student Governemnt Association recently placed a survey on FSC’s OrgSync website. The survey allows students to rate their satisfaction level and point out problems with their community’s laundry services.
“We often receive complaints regarding this issue and would like to be able to present the administration with factual evidence as to whether or not this is actually an issue,” Jared Goodwin, SGA president, wrote on the website.
The survey however, does not include an option for more specific responses.
At the latest SGA Presidents’ Circle Meeting, students were allowed an open forum in which they could voice their opinions and provide specific details. The majority of students who contributed in the debate spoke disapprovingly on the issue of laundry services.
The students discussed the dispersal of the laundry loads, the disproportionate amount of machines and the repair company’s need for improvement to repair the machines that are working.
“I put in a work order for the washers and dryers that were not working in the Greek Quad a few times and listed the numbers for which ones weren’t working and they didn’t do anything about it,” Rachel Belli, president of Gamma Phi Beta said. “I called the company and the company also didn’t do anything, they said that I had to talk to the school. So they sent me back and forth between the two and then I’m just sitting there with dirty laundry.”
There are some students who believe that the current condition of laundry services in the college isn’t that as terrible as some might believe.
“Miller and Dell Halls share a laundry room so for Dell Hall people that might be inconvenient,” Tommy Hull, junior, said. “The laundry situation is not too bad. I think we have a fair enough number of washing machines and dryers.”
Hull still sees a need to make changes on campus.
“I definitely feel like they should get more machines. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait 20 minutes when you need laundry done. College students are procrastinators and when they need laundry done and there’s a lack of machines, it’s just a tough spot to be in.” Hull said.
Photo by Bethany Schram
