Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Priscilla des Gachons/DP Senior Photographer Laundry will be free for the next two years in all College Houses.

With the installation of new laundry machines in all of the College Houses, students will no longer need to save up their quarters - laundry will be free for the next two years.

Housing Services recently signed a new contract with Equipment Marketers, a commercial laundry equipment distributor based in New Jersey.

"In negotiating the new contract we received a significant discount from the contractor and we are passing that savings on to the students," Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger wrote in an e-mail.

The savings will allow students to do free laundry for the next two years, after which residents will have to pay a general laundry use fee.

"How that fee will be assessed and how much it will cost has not been determined," Lea-Kruger wrote.

Lea-Kruger said Business Services hopes that only College House residents will use the laundry machines but will be assessing the use of and damage to machines and comparing it to previous years.

Housing Services has been installing the new machines in all College Houses since the end of last semester. Installation has been completed in all the College Houses except Harrison, where the work is expected to be completed soon.

All of the machines will meet energy efficiency standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Not surprisingly, students say they are looking forward to saving some cash.

"It was always trouble finding quarters for the laundry," said Wharton sophomore and Harrison College House resident Aparna Kadan.

Engineering Sophomore and Rodin College House resident Mario Lanao said he would much prefer to have a flat fee charged to his bill rather than paying for laundry each time he did it.

Housing Services is also installing a "Laundry Alert System" by the end of October, Lea-Kruger wrote. The system will allow residents to choose a laundry room based on availability of machines and will send out an alert when the laundry is completed.

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