The Freshman Leadership Council is working to make laundry at LSU “laund-free.”
A “Free Laundry for LSU Students” survey created by a small group within Freshman Leadership Council is going viral across the University’s campus. The nine-question survey asks students living in residence halls how many laundry loads they typically wash per week, if they’ve ever had issues with doing laundry on campus and if they think laundry should be free for students in residence halls.
Laundry in residence halls at the University costs $1.25 per wash and dry, resulting in a total cost of $2.50 for one laundry load. Students can pay for their laundry using only TigerCASH or quarters.
The survey has made some students, including psychology freshman Morgan Michael, wonder why they’re paying to do their laundry in the first place.
With washing and drying towels, sheets and clothes about once a week, Michael said she spends around $15 a month on her laundry.
“I think free laundry should definitely be implemented,” Michael said. “Every student has a right to clean clothes and sheets. Students already have to pay for so much living on campus. Laundry is a necessity, not a luxury.”
The survey also asks students if they would be willing to have laundry included in residential hall fees. The 2019-2020 cost of on-campus housing is estimated at $7,388, according to LSU Financial Aid and Scholarships.
While the general consensus among students is that laundry should be a free service in residence halls, many disagree with including laundry in the residential hall fees.
Michael said she would rather pay for her laundry separately than have the residential fee raised to include the service.
Kinesiology freshman Zaria Smith disagrees with raising the residential fee because she sees it as counterproductive. Smith lives in South Hall but does not do her laundry there. She drives three hours to do her laundry at home on most weekends, but said she’d do her laundry in her dorm if the service was free.
However, some students don’t have the luxury of driving home to do their laundry. Pre-nursing freshman Madelyn Friedlander is an out-of-state student currently living in Miller Hall. She said she spends a lot of money on laundry a month and if she could avoid doing her laundry in the dorm, she would.
“The machines are terrible,” Friedlander said. “They don’t dry your clothes sometimes, so you have to keep them in the dryer one to two extra [cycles]. I already pay to live in the dorm. Why do I have to pay to do my laundry?”
Though she thinks laundry should be free, Friedlander is indifferent about whether the service should be included as part of the residential fee. She feels that laundry is one of the less prominent issues in Miller Hall.
Psychology freshman Michelle Hall spends almost $30 a month doing her laundry. She strongly believes the price of laundry should automatically be included in the residential fee because students already have to pay so much to live in the building.
Sports administration freshman Ethan Luper agrees. Luper said he spends about $10 a month on laundry and emphasized that it adds up.
This initiative is still in the early stages, according to Freshman Leadership Council members. Each spring, the Freshman Leadership Council is divided into eight small groups. Each group is tasked with inventing an initiative that could potentially benefit students. One of the small groups created the idea to push to make laundry free for students living on campus.
Residential Life Communications and Development Associate Director Catherine David explained that laundry services in residence halls are run by a contracted third-party vendor. Residential Life is urging LSU Auxiliary Services and LSU Procurement to renegotiate the contract terms when the service is up for review and renewal to make the service available at no cost for the students.
“We would very much like to include laundry in the list of services available to residence hall residents at no additional cost,” David said.

Click here to take the Freshman Leadership Council survey.