Moving on to campus and living in dorms is a step to achieving independence in adulthood, however, it is also one of the most expensive years financially. Students are paying for housing, tuition, textbooks, technology fees, health fees and more to ensure that they are prepared and receive everything their college/university offers.

While most students and families understand that pursuing higher education is an investment and pay the price to get their children ahead it can come to a halt when fees that are not covered come up later – like laundry for example.

Thousands of freshmen and their residential advisors must pay to do their laundry in the dorms at LSU. The pricing is $1.50 which students see as reasonable. However, when you factor in how many loads you have to do; the pricing for both the washer and dryer, and the machines breaking down the price can go up quickly.

“Dorms are already so expensive and you are required to live on campus and laundry is just another set thing you have to pay for.” said Herget Residential Advisor Elizabeth Gatz. “Even though every dorm has the same cost it can kind of discourage them from using the washing machines and dryers especially when they are broken…at the risk you might be using more money to wash them or dry them.”

Sarah Rice, who has experienced her fair share of issues with the machines in her building, also spoke.

“If you’re paying out of pocket that’s your own money that you may or may not have to spend on laundry especially considering how much our tuition and the amount of issues we have with laundry. You might not have an extra $1.50 to spend on a machine that does not properly wash and dry your clothes” Sarah Rice said.

LSU can do better for its students by ensuring that the company they rent washing and drying machines from fix issues promptly and providing options to refund students who have lost money due to the machines being broken.