“Dreading doing my laundry”

The Muhlenberg Independent Living Experience (MILE) area allows for students to live in college-owned housing in off-campus areas and locations. This allows for unique benefits, but also some challenges. One of these challenges is utilizing the six laundry rooms and spaces for residents. 

Isabelle Peters ‘24 posted a TikTok on Sept. 11 highlighting her experience in one of the MILE Neighborhood laundry rooms for her accommodation on 22nd Street. The video showcased the unruly state of the laundry room, which included trash and filth. “Honestly I was just dreading doing my laundry because at that point there was so much trash and rotting leaves it was starting to smell… So I figured I would just make it into a funny video.”

Housing & Residence Life (HRL) saw the TikTok and responded immediately, sending an email to Peters and cleaning the facility for students in the MILE. Peters continued, “I actually did receive an email from housing just a couple days after I posted the TikTok apologizing for the state of the laundry room and informing me that they were getting Plant Ops out there that day!”

“They really got to work fast! They cleaned up the outside stairway, swept and cleared out the furniture from the basement and repainted all the walls. They also repaired all the machines and set up a lost and found down there,” noted Peters. 

“It was such a nice surprise when I went down there and it looked so much better.”

Isabelle Peters ’24

Housing and Residence Life commented on the laundry rooms in the MILE area and how they compare to those in traditional residence halls. Housing stated, “Significantly fewer students use the MILE laundry rooms than in most traditional halls (Example: East Hall 40 residents/per machine, Liberty Street 25 residents per machine).”  

The six laundry rooms have varying ranges of residents assigned to them. Albright has 20 residents, Gordon has 45, Leh has 28, Liberty has 50, North 22nd has 50 and Tilghman has 16 residents. 

HRL also informed The Weekly that the machines and cleanliness of these laundry rooms are checked by employees routinely, including the Resident Advisors (RAs). “During the semester they are cleaned on a biweekly basis and HRL staff including RAs check periodically throughout the semester. If any issues arise in the meantime, we rely on students using the laundry rooms to report issues. This can be done by sharing issues with your resident advisor or emailing issues to housing@muhlenberg.edu.”

The MILE Neighborhood RAs look after the various accommodations on Liberty, 22nd, Gordon, Albright and other streets close to campus. These RAs oversee multiple students who live in their general areas. One RA, Vanessa Graniero ‘24, mentioned the struggles the laundry rooms bring for their residents and for their position.

“We have two machines for 30 people. For the first month-ish of the academic year, one of each of the machines didn’t work, so it left one for 30 people. As an RA, I have to solve these problems as they come, but I also have to live them.”

Graniero continued, “I literally avoid using the laundry room because I have no clue what kind of situation I will find. Whether both machines are taken, or one or both of the machines is broken, it’s like Schrodinger’s laundry, I’d rather be left wondering than find out something is wrong.”

Another challenge for residents can be the distance of the laundry rooms from their living accommodations. Peters mentioned, “The laundry room for our neighborhood is right next-door to my house, so it’s not that far of a walk, but I know for a lot of others it’s almost two blocks away.”

Housing discussed the distance of the laundry rooms from residents in their comment and how that factored into deciding which spaces would best be utilized for residents. “We have evaluated the zones for the laundry rooms and the reason that Albright and Tilghman have fewer students is because they are farther from the bulk of the MILE residents, so the laundry rooms that have more people are significantly closer to where those residents live.”

This distance has proven to be a challenge for some residents, however, especially if they do not have a car. Brian Silberman ‘25 is currently living in the MILE area and struggles with the distance of the laundry rooms from his living accommodation.

“The laundry room on my street is two blocks away from my MILE, and when I need to do laundry, I need to walk to the laundry room and back multiple times within the span of a few hours, no matter if it’s boiling hot outside, freezing cold, raining, snowing or icy. And because of how long it takes me to walk to the laundry room assigned to my MILE, by the time I come back from putting my clothes in the washing machine, I only have 15-20 minutes before I need to walk back to the laundry room to switch my clothes into the dryer.”

Silberman explained how the laundry rooms in Martin Luther (ML) and East are actually closer to his MILE. 

“Every time I did laundry, I had someone let me into ML and I would spend a few hours doing work in their room while my laundry was being cleaned, and doing laundry in ML was great! ML is closer to my MILE than my MILE’s laundry room is, and every time I did laundry in ML, no matter what time of day or what day of the week, there were always multiple open machines for me to use.”

The laundry situation has required people to use any resources they can to get their clothes clean and their laundry done, whether it means finding access to a residence hall or bringing it home. Silberman is living in the same MILE, but no longer knows someone in ML or East and so he can no longer have the benefit of doing his laundry there. One specific story Silberman mentioned was comical in nature as none of the machines were available for an entire day. 

“One Tuesday in the middle of the fall 2022 semester, I really needed to do laundry. I only had one class on Tuesdays that semester, so after my class ended at 10:45 a.m., I picked up my laundry from my MILE and walked to the laundry room to put my clothes in the washing machine. When I got to the laundry room at about 11:00 a.m., both washing machines and both dryers were being used, and their cycles had just started a few minutes before I got there. I was disappointed and walked back to my MILE, deciding that I would try again a little later. About an hour and a half later, at about 12:30 p.m., I went back to the laundry room with my laundry, and again all four machines had just started their cycle! I tried again at about 2:00 p.m. after lunch, and again all four machines had just started their cycle! This kept going on for the rest of the day: I went back to the laundry room every hour and a half to two hours, and every single time I went, all four machines had just started their cycle! I checked one last time at about 9:30 p.m. that night, and had the same experience. Somehow over the course of an entire day from 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., every single laundry machine in the MILE laundry room was being used, and I was never able to do laundry that day.”

“At that point, I gave up on using the MILE laundry room, and for the rest of last year, both fall semester and spring semester, I refused to ever use the MILE laundry room again.”

Brian Silberman ‘25

Some people who prefer to do laundry at home live close to campus, but other individuals are also waiting to do laundry until they return home for holidays and for breaks. Brianna Moyer ‘24 lives in a MILE, but transports her laundry to her home since she lives close by. “I go home to do laundry because I live close to campus and it’s more convenient to just go home and do it. A lot of times here the washers and dryers are full so it’s easy to just do it at home and not have to worry about that.”

When asked if there was any incentive that would motivate Moyer to do laundry on campus, she mentioned an unrealistic objective. “I’d love for there to be washers and dryers in all the MILEs but I know that’s a lot to ask for, so maybe if there were more machines in the communal areas I’d be more inclined to do my laundry here.”

An anonymous student shared a similar hope, “I think they should have machines in each apartment rather than one for an entire street. Two washers and two dryers is absolutely ridiculous for that many people in different houses.”

Graniero does not live close to campus, but she still transports some of her laundry back home. “I waited two weeks without doing laundry just because I knew I was going home and could do it then…If we are going to have to pay to do laundry, the least they could do is offer us machines that work to dry clothes.”

Regardless of the thoughts on the MILE laundry services, this is still a paid service and a basic need for residents. HRL continues to look after these spaces and provide changes for students, as seen in response to Peters’ TikTok, but the practicality of these spaces are still in question.

“Washers and dryers are tested/inspected semesterly by our outside service provider to ensure they are working, but if students report issues in the meantime, a service call is made and our vendor comes and assesses the issue and schedules repairs,” stated HRL.

There are complaints from students about the dryers not working properly. Olivia Oberman ‘24 stated, “The dryers simply don’t work.”

Graniero added, “On top of this, a general ‘Berg laundry problem is we are paying for washing and drying, and the drying only works like 50 percent of the time. Then you have to pay double to dry your clothes. If we are going to have to pay to do laundry, the least they could do is offer us machines that work to dry clothes.”

Peters concluded, “Overall I was impressed at the speed that housing got the issue resolved! I’m pleasantly surprised that my TikTok, which was me making a joke out of a slightly bad situation, actually resulted in action and change.”

One anonymous student shared, “As a tour guide who praises the Muhlenberg Independent Living Experience to prospective students and families, it is deeply upsetting to have been presented with a poor and unsafe laundry circumstance. The line I always always shared on tours since freshman year, ‘as a landlord, Muhlenberg makes sure to look out for their students.’”