Dryers can’t keep up with laundry demand at QU

With around 2,000 students being enrolled in the university and a large percentage of that number of students being housed on campus, operational life for all aspects of the university can be hectic. 

There are certain services offered through the university that have active workers amongst staff and student workers like the dining system and the security for parking and campus for example. 

The only system where operations are not actively controlled, but monitored and corrected when needed on campus is the laundry system.

Students have to control their lively schedules and incorporate doing their own laundry.

While it can seem that completing such a task for the average person is simple, it is intriguing to see and realize the different angles on which students on campus can cause certain issues in the bigger picture operations of the laundry system. 

Students offered their insights and opinions on the functionality, what they like and what they dislike about the laundry system.

“I remember my freshman year in the Helien dorm, one day when I had gotten back from class the whole side of the building that I lived on was incredibly smoky and got worse for like half an hour. They finally came to fix the problem and it ended up being that one of the guys had packed a washing machine so full of clothes that it had overworked the washer and caused it to almost catch on fire I heard,” Ryan Riggs said.

In each of the laundry rooms that are placed in the basements and rooms of varying dorm buildings around campus, there is information and insight to attempt to inform the students what type of forms of detergents and drying materials are acceptable for the machines for proper operation in an attempt to prevent issues like this happening in the future with active students as well as students to come.  

Also posted is cleaning information for when and if a student experiences a certain type of stain or marking in their clothing, how to correctly go about properly cleaning the item.

A poster with information on how to effectively clean specific types of stains out of clothes for students to use when they do laundry.
Chart with how to remove certain stains.

“It seems no matter what dorm you live in, there will always be athletes living in the buildings. They have a lot of laundry to do pretty often it seems with all of the team issued practice gear and whatnot that they have to wear. My biggest issue when I do my laundry, especially on the weekends, is so many people are doing laundry and the washer moves quicker than the dryer. So there is always a backup and people end up putting other people’s clothes all over the place to get their stuff washed and dried,” Caidyn Prediger said. 

Piles of clothes from students doing their laundry and other students have moved and piled their items to the tops of the dryers for accessibility for them to do their own laundry
Piles of clothes built up on top on top of the dryers

“People never come and get their stuff, it ends up getting tossed and moved. Then to mention how the machines aren’t in the greatest of shape either, being insanely loud and leaking from time to time,” Jayme Brain said. 

Posted as well in each of the laundry rooms is a website service and links to a downloadable app to track and monitor which machines are in use and also track time remaining in the cycle in an effort to prevent the issues of time management and clothes buildup in the laundry rooms.

A demographic that shows a QR code as well as a website link for students to access on their phones or other devices to track which washing machines and dryers are being used as well as how much time remains in the laundry cycle
Information about services to track machine usage

The laundry system operates and functions well enough for students to clean their clothes and other dorm room items that are applicable despite the occurring issues.

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