Haverford College is currently in the process of re-transitioning the washing and drying machines to a pay-per-use model for the 21-22 school year. Forcing students to pay money to simply wash their clothes (when room and board already costs upwards of $16,000) is first and foremost an issue of equity and once again points to the college’s repeated behavior to exploit current students for profit.

In addition to the fact that laundry has and continues to be permanently free at our partner school, Bryn Mawr College, laundry at Haverford was originally made free last year so students could wash their face masks more frequently—thereby aiding in the health, safety, and quality of life for all students living on campus. Considering all students are still required to wear face masks inside academic buildings and during classes, laundry on-campus should be free as long as masks are worn on campus.

Furthermore, the laundry rooms and machines are frankly kept in terrible condition, as the spaces are almost never cleaned (see the above photo of Barclay), the machines constantly break down, and maintenance requests are often ignored.

So Haverford, if you don’t want all your students to be stinky MAKE LAUNDRY FREE!