Finding laundry space is a longstanding annoyance of Princeton life. But not everyone’s experience is the same: The ratio of students to washing and drying machines varies widely by residential college.
Matthew Adejuwon ’28, a resident of Rockefeller College, lives in Campbell Hall, famous for its lack of washers and dryers. This forces residents like Adejuwon to cross to a neighboring hall, Joline Hall, where only four washers serve the entire building.
“One was broken for most of the semester, so practically three,” Adejuwon told The Daily Princetonian. “The dryers don’t work most of the time, so I also do it twice, which is around two hours wasted of my time.”
Rockefeller has one of the smaller student-to-washer ratios among the colleges this year, with 16 residents per machine, according to University spokesperson Ahmad Rizvi. This ratio is much more convenient than that of its counterpart Mathey College, which has 32 residents per machine.
“I try to do my laundry on a weekday,” said Mathey resident Sasha Cocquyt ’28. “There’s maybe a 10 percent chance that a washer/dryer will be open on the weekend.”
It’s not only the older colleges where students face challenges trying to find open and functional laundry machines. While Butler boasts the lowest student-to-washer ratio (14), the layout of its halls have led to contrasting experiences within its residential body. For example, those living in Bloomberg Hall, such as Kian Mitty ’29, have just a few washers per floor instead of centralized laundry in the basement.
“In my laundry room, there are only two washers and four dryers,” Mitty wrote to the ‘Prince.’ Fellow Bloomberg resident Andrei Dragomir ’28 echoed Mitty’s complaint that at least on the weekends, the machines are hardly available.
“I do have to take out the clothes from someone else … and once even I was taking out the clothes while the person came in, and that was a very awkward interaction,” Dragomir admitted in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
Conversely, August Mobley ’28, who lives in one of Butler’s main buildings, has not encountered any significant issues while doing laundry. “I think Butler has … enough so unless it’s really busy during the weekends, you can always find a machine, you don’t really have to worry about fighting for one,” Mobley said.
The separation of buildings is a characteristic shared by Forbes College with the Main Inn and Annex. However, its residents are more ambivalent about the difference in laundry capacity between the two locations. Annex resident Nayrouz Tantush ’29 instead prefers doing laundry close to home, writing, “I think it’s a lot better than [the] Main Inn … we have a lot of washing machines.”
Yeh College and New College West boast student-to-washer ratios between the Mathey’s high of 32 and Butler’s low of 14, with 26 and 25 students per washer respectively, Rizvi said.
“Please give us more facilities,” Mitty implored.
Haeon Lee is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Brooklyn, N.Y. and can be reached at hl1389[at]princeton.edu.
Aitana Camponovo is a News writer for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Washington, D.C., and can be reached at ac9353[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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