Hannah Bradley is a junior
English writing major from Marysville, Ohio.
CHRISTA SCHROEDEL / THE DEPAUW
The last thing I want to be thinking about when I am in class or writing an essay is laundry. Those of you who live in the North Quad or elsewhere that must take a trip to Reese for laundry know what I am talking about.
There you are, just living your life, until “%#$!”: you have two pairs of underwear left, and it is time to make some decisions. Should you study for your exam and read that book for class, or should you be clean?
In our busy schedules it can be hard planning a time to make the trip, especially since all the machines may be full when you get there. Laundry often turns into an all-afternoon event. By the time you get done with classes and work at 5:30 and then have a few meetings, there is scarcely enough time for homework alone. Not to mention the time it takes trying to coordinate with someone who has a car. Begging for a ride every week isn’t fun, but is necessary.
At a housing meeting a student posed a question about what students without cars are supposed to do. The staff member gave an answer along the lines of: ‘well you have legs don’t you?’ Yes, I can just see it. I, in my winter coat, scarf, and mittens loaded down with two weeks of laundry and backpack trudging through two feet of ice and snow.
I am usually not a complainer, but there are some things that I don’t feel I should have to do simply because I live where I live. The variety of housing options means that differences are inevitable, but laundry facilities should be standard.
Cleanliness must be seen as a basic human right. It would be outrageous if the University only put showers in some of the housing and made other people walk. Why is laundry so different? An argument may be that we should just get over it because this is more like the real world.
I would argue that enough money has been spent on my education to warrant me a few luxuries while I am still in the DePauw bubble. I will be out in the ‘real world’ for the rest of my life, why rush it? Anyways, doesn’t DePauw want us to focus on our schoolwork?
For me it is a question of priorities; maybe renovating the fitness center is more glamorous than putting laundry facilities in all student housing. But University money should be spent on facilities more closely aligned with what student’s actually need.
Sure, a lot of us go to the gym, but hopefully all of us are doing our laundry.