The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) College Council (CC) passed a resolution on January 19 calling on University administrators to offer a Maroon Dollar payment option for laundry in the dorms.
The resolution, proposed by Class of 2029 CC representative Aaron Horowitz, would provide an alternative to the current credit-only option, which requires students to download an app—WASH-Connect or CSCPay Mobile, depending on residence hall—and use their personal funds to pay for laundry. Woodlawn Residential Commons, which is run by an external property management company, operates on a separate system from the rest of on-campus housing.
One wash or dry cycle in any residence hall costs $1.50 when paid for through the app. Woodlawn residents also have the option to pay directly with their debit or credit card, which costs $1.75 per cycle.
In the resolution, USG cited peer institutions, including Northwestern University, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and Columbia University, which have already implemented free laundry services for students. Additionally, the University already offers Maroon Dollars as a payment option for items at campus markets, student-run cafés, and Hutchinson Commons. Hutchinson Commons in particular allows students to purchase food from various restaurants using third-party vendor Grubhub on the app or kiosk. USG suggested this current structure of how Maroon Dollars are used means “a Maroon Dollar laundry funding proposal fundamentally makes sense.”
In an interview with the Maroon, Horowitz described the origins of this proposal in his fall campaign for CC. “It was really important to my campaign, and now it’s really important to me as a representative to do everything I can to deliver on that part of my platform,” Horowitz said. “Generally, the great thing about first-years is that we bring a lot of fresh ideas to campus, and we bring new ways of looking at systems in place.”
Horowitz believes this is an opportune time for the resolution because of an increased administrative presence in Housing & Residence Life (HRL) which gives the University greater latitude over operations in residence halls. This follows the change in HRL’s governance structure last spring, moving from Campus and Student Life to the College. According to Horowitz, administrators can now directly implement changes to residential life, in comparison to previous processes that may have required additional conversations with HRL leadership.
In response to a request for comment, a University spokesperson told the Maroon that “Housing and Residence Life and the Bursar’s Office are aware of the USG resolution and are currently exploring possible next steps.”
Some students see the benefits of using Maroon Dollars for various services on campus. “[It] seems like a fair trade-off for people who don’t want to spend all of the Maroon Dollars on food,” second-year Edgar San Jose said.
“Having Maroon Dollars for laundry is good because it decreases the burden on us,” second-year Julian Iverson said.
Horowitz and USG will continue to have conversations with University administration with the goal of providing students with a Maroon Dollar payment option. “I’m optimistic that USG will be able to partner with the administration to deliver results that benefit everyone going forward,” he said.
Editor’s note: Aaron Horowitz is a copy editor for the Maroon.
