Student complaints about the on campus washers and dryers are not going unnoticed. Campus Services and ASCLUG Senate have worked to change out faulty card readers, develop wash trackers on Wash Views website and maintain greater communication with manufacturers.

Since the arrival of new Maytag machines last year and a switch away from prepaid laundry cards to Wave Rider’s debit system, students have had a new set of objections to the washers and dryers. The card readers do not function properly, the dryers do not fully dry clothing and it is hard to know when machines are free without searching to find one.

“Even though you put it on the hot setting, the clothes will kind of come out wet and the card readers are really annoying,” Athanasia Platis, sophomore Trinity Hall resident, said.

“[The scanners] work sometimes and sometimes they don’t,” junior senator Adam Santa Cruz said. “You have to try several different cards.”

Freshman senator Alexis Ghattas and Director of Campus Services Vanessa Webster-Smith have responded to complaints. Ghattas continues her work on a senate project to increase the frequency in which Wash Multifamily Laundry System technicians check up on the machines. Rather than filing a report that may take manufacturers three to four months to respond to, they now must do checks every 90 days.

“My project was to make sure they check up on maintenance. I wanted to make sure it was a good experience,” Ghattas said. “That is why I wanted them to do these checkups. Your washers and dryers need to be working.”

As of this semester, the card readers have all been updated as well.

“The card readers, when we first got them in, they didn’t work, but now they have all been upgraded,” Webster-Smith said.

California Lutheran University  will also be getting new washers and dryers every three years to keep up with changing technology and to keep them as efficient as possible. Before they were replaced in 2014, those sometimes clothes-damaging machines had been used for eight years.

“We’re going to keep up with technology, we’re going to do the three year replacement plan and we’ve tried not to go up in cost,” Webster-Smith said.

Student workers in Campus Services also assess the conditions of machines on a regular basis.

“Once a month we send a student around to make sure the washers are up and running and make sure they don’t have any nicks or cuts in them,” Webster-Smith said.

Campus Services encourages students to call in any maintenance problems they may have including flooding and functional issues. Some issues included a flooding in Trinity Hall last year and the accidental ripping out of a washer and dryer control board in South hall this past semester.

“[Trinity] was a piping issue. It was a brand new building and when you have a brand new building, you’re going to have some issues,” Webster-Smith said. “[In South], they tore out a controller that controlled the washers and dryers and so those washers and dryers were out for a while.”

However, both of these issues were resolved by facilities within 24 hours.

“Our facilities department is great at that. Once they find out about it, they’re on it,” Webster-Smith said.

In addition to Ghattas’ program, other steps have been taken to make sure Cal Lutheran continues to offer the best service possible to residents including wash trackers.

“We have wash alerts too, in most buildings where you can tell whether a washer is being used or not,” Webster-Smith said. “I don’t think a lot of students know about Wash Alert.”

Students can log in to the Wave View website and view the status of all washers and dryers in any residence hall and see if it is in use and even how much time remains on each cycle.

Senior Senator Eric Flores who is  focused on making Cal Lutheran a more eco-friendly campus, sees these new machines as a definite step in getting the university to be greener.

“Our school is actually pretty good right now at taking steps to implement some of the eco-friendly systems,” Flores said.

Molly Strawn
Staff Writer
Published February 3rd, 2016