Opinion: Dean College Turns to Free Laundry After Student Petition Gains Traction
For years, Dean College students that live on campus have been paying by load for their laundry, but prices have steadily increased as the years have gone by. Ava Duffy, a senior at Dean, created a petition to make laundry free at Dean.
This petition, created a few weeks ago, gained the attention of students and faculty on campus. It was signed over 300 times with other students supporting Ava's opinion in wanting to change how laundry is paid for.
Two weeks ago, there was an update on the petition, it was deemed a success by Ava, saying, "I have met with Dean College administration and they informed me they will soon be eliminating the cost of individual loads of laundry, and instead it will be included in the cost of student housing. We are yet to find out what the added cost to housing will be, if there is one."
Student voices were heard and created change within Dean's administration, creating a new way to do laundry after years of it being the same.
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When speaking with Ava about what has since happened due to her creation of the petition, she talked about how much positive feedback she received from friends and other students that felt the same way. However, there were others that shared the petition for negative reasons and said it most likely wouldn't change anything or would raise tuition prices for students at Dean.
Prior to creating the petition, Ava took a different route to try to fix the laundry issues. She went straight to Interim President Darrell Kulesza with her concerns. After being told someone from the administration would reach out, she created the petition to get the ball rolling herself.
From there, she presented the petition signed by 300 people to President Kulesza to show him this was something that many students cared about. A meeting with Chief Ken Corkran followed this. Ava mentioned, "The conversation was short! I met with Chief Corkran and he let me know that they had begun the process of eliminating individual cost for laundry services."
The biggest problem of all this was that Dean has a contract with their current laundry system, Laundry Connect. In the contract, it is expected that students pay for each individual wash or dry cycle that they do. During the meeting with Ava, Chief Corkran said they were already working on cancelling this contract.
As for when this will come into effect, Ava was told that it should happen as soon as winter break ends, and students are back to school for the spring semester. She also said that there hasn't yet been an update on whether there will be an added cost to students' housing bills.
Student residents will now have a difference in their dorm living situation when winter break ends. Due to the voice of one student, there will now be a big change on campus, showing just how strong student opinions can be.
Disclaimer: This article contains student opinions that are not all based on facts
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