Establishing free laundry on campus is the Student Government Association’s (SGA) most recent accomplishment. It was spearheaded by Student Body President Thomas Dessoye and Vice President Dean Millard after many meetings and negotiations, and will go into effect the Fall Semester of 2024.
“Free laundry has been an initiative SGA has strived to accomplish to remove the financial barriers of accessing a basic necessity that specifically affects lower- and middle-income students,” Dessoye said.
“Paying directly out of pocket for laundry can be a challenge for students, and we want to ensure students do not have to worry about choosing whether or not they can wash and dry their clothes.”
In order to enact free laundry on campus, Villanova has raised the price of room and board by $100 per annum or $50 per semester. Although some students reported this being excessive, the increase is actually very reasonable.
So, let’s do the math. There are 103 academic days in the Fall Semester of 2024, not including breaks, which is a little under 15 weeks. If one were to do one laundry cycle every week (under the current rate of $1.50 for wash and $1.50 for dry), this would come out to a total of $45. Therefore, if students did their laundry every week, plus their sheets, they would end up saving money from SGA’s laundry initiative.
Furthermore, students’ financial aid packages will factor in the $100 increase, meaning that the initiative would increase accessibility across the board. There are many students on campus who do laundry infrequently in order to save as much money as possible. However, this no longer needs to be the case. Students should not feel the need to skimp on something as essential as clean clothes.
Of course, there is the argument that even with this, the initiative can’t be called “free” laundry if students are actually paying for it. However, there are plenty of services on campus that are pitched to students as “free,” despite their technically being paid for via tuition, such as tutoring and counseling centers. The verbiage is consistent and therefore acceptable.
Ultimately, the successful implementation of the free laundry initiative is indicative of SGA’s dedication to the student body and active role in shaping Villanova’s policies. I firmly believe that students should have a say in the University’s policies. Engagement with student leaders and administration results in just that.
