The Scoop on Laundry

By MEG JONES

Since arriving to the St. Paul's School campus some students in the Advanced Studies Program (ASP) have had difficulties with their laundry.

“These washers are really ruining my experience here at (the) ASP,” said Artificial Intelligence student Neil Oczechowski. Recently, Mr. Oczechowski attempted to put his laundry through the dryer. However, he accidentally pressed the incorrect buttons forcing him to pay more and add additional cycles to his dryer.

Similarly, Abidjan Walker, a student in Conover 20, paid before loading the washer and consequently ran an empty load of laundry.

Although Celia Honigberg and Ana Bealo, two residents of Wing, had no trouble with the washing and drying machines themselves, they expressed fear when describing the creepy hallway they must brave in order to get to the laundry facilities. Both described the laundry room as a place where they would expect a horror movie to take place. Ms. Bealo said she armed herself with her laundry basket on her way to the laundry room, expecting a monster to jump out from behind the pipes lining the hall. Thankfully, no student has yet been harmed in the process of doing laundry.

Two weeks into the program, some students still have not done their laundry. Studio Arts student Sarah Davidson admitted to leaving the white-plastic Automatic Laundry card she received on move-in day in her mother's car. Rather than going to Room 12 in the Schoolhouse and getting a new one from the ASP Assistant Directors, she waited for her mother to mail the card to her.

Foster resident Kaelan Hansson warns not to put one's laundry card into a steel wallet. “It fries the magnet in your card and you lose all your money,” Mr. Hansson said.

Both Joe Lanoie and Jo Estevao went to the Post Office to put money onto their laundry cards and couldn't because the machine “was frozen.” The Assistant Directors are currently trying to fix the Post Office debit/credit card laundry card loader machine. It is unclear when the machine will be up and running again.

Mr. Lanoie then found his way to the other laundry card loader machine on campus in the basement of the Freeman Center. His frustrations didn’t end with the second machine. “I couldn't make multiples of three dollars, so it was kind of hard [estimating how much money to put on the laundry card]” Mr. Lanoie said.

The machine in the Freeman Center takes cash only. After a long trial-and-error period, during which students tried inserting one dollar bill after one dollar bill, it was discovered that the machine takes only five dollar bills or higher.

Advanced Mathematics student,Victor Luu said he believed the price for an entire wash/dry cycle, $1.50 each or $3 total, is “too expensive.” Any money leftover on the laundry cards is non-refundable because the laundry facilities are run by Automatic Laundry, not St. Paul's School.

“It says I already have ten dollars on it,” said one student seeing his balance displayed on the screen, not realizing that the cards are reused.

Despite the disasters, many students have gone without laundry troubles.

“It's done. It was good,” said Brewster resident Avery Hymel indicating the clean shirt he was wearing.

“I don't have a dryer at home so it was really exciting,” said Astronomy student Morgan Matthews.