| DAVIDSON
LAUNDRY SYSTEM INSURES A CLEAN STUDENT BODY
by Jim Swansbrough
DAVIDSON, N.C.— Even though it may be the first time many students
at Davidson College are living away from home, they’ll still have
some home-like amenities – mainly, someone else doing their laundry.
For the past eighty-three years a laundry service fee has been incorporated
into mandatory student charges, and it’s a price that most students
and parents are happy to bear.
“If we did not have the laundry program and someone suggested
we institute it and pass on the additional costs to students through
mandatory fees, they would probably get laughed out of the office,”
said Richard Terry, director of auxiliary services. “But it has
been maintained through generations because it’s an aspect of
the college’s cultural and historical fabric that people have
come to value.”
According to Terry, the Davidson system of mandatory laundry service
for all students is unique nationwide. Incoming first year students
receive a letter from the college laundry describing the service and
prescribing their personal laundry number for the next four years. Students
write or sew the number onto each piece of clothing before they arrive
on campus.
Students may drop their dirty laundry off at the laundry at any time
during business hours. Machine washable items go in one bin, and shirts
and pants that need dry cleaning go in another bin. Laundry workers
separate the whites and colors, and check pockets for forgotten personal
belongings. Once they’re clean, the machine washable clothes are
wrapped in brown paper and marked with the student’s laundry number.
Dry cleaned clothes are covered in plastic marked with the number and
hung on a moving carousel. On average, clean clothes are ready for pickup
within 48 hours of drop off. There is no limit on the amount of wash
or frequency per student.
”Approximately 12,000 pounds of clothes are cleaned per week
during the school year. said Aaron Jackson, laundry manager. “The
laundry also operates during the summer to provide clean linen for summer
camps and programs, but the load drops to 2,000 pounds per week during
that period.”
Goods in the 5,000 square foot laundry are washed by four Maytag 25-pound
washers, one Unimac 100-pound washer, two Unimac 85 pound washers and
two Unimac 125-pound washers. Drying is conducted by twenty, 25-pound
Heubsch dryers , one, 100-pound Heubsch dryer and six, 20-pound Maytag
dryers. The laundry has one Continental flatwork ironer, an Ajax single
buck shirt press, an Ajax double buck shirt press, two Forenta pant
presses and one Ajax pant press in their finishing department.
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Roughly 1,100 of Davidson’s
1,600 students make use of the college laundry on a regular basis.
The other 500 or so opt to do their own laundry using the free
washers and dryers located in various residence halls around campus.
The system works efficiently in large part because of the college’s
Honor Code. Students receive no receipt when they drop off laundry
or pick up their wrapped bundles and dry cleaning. The only form
of check-in and check-out is for college-issue bed linens, a system
begun just this year to regulate the number of sheets taken and
returned at one time.
The laundry staff of twelve maintain the same honorable standards.
Lula Bell Houston, an 80-year-old veteran of the staff recalled
a time when she returned a substantial amount of money from a
pants pocket to an overjoyed student who wanted to reward her
with half of it.
“They’re all professional in what they do because
they’ve been doing it so long. Several women are second-generation
employees of the laundry,” said Terry.
Davidson initiated its mandatory laundry service in the 1919-1920
academic year, “for hygienic and other reasons.” The
initial cost was $2 per month. The service now operates on a fluctuating
budget acquired from student fees. Terry estimated that the current
cost per student is about $450 per year. Laundry funds not used
in the budget year revert to the general college budget.
When the college first admitted women in 1972, a sub-committee
on coeducation deemed the laundry service unequipped to satisfactorily
launder women’s apparel. For that reason, the college installed
household-type washers and dryers in several residence halls for
women and men who wanted to do their own washing. The college
has upgraded the laundry equipment and service since then to accommodate
women’s apparel, and today most women have their clothes
cleaned there.
“When I tell friends our school does laundry for us, they’re
absolutely flabbergasted,” said senior, Alan Cubre. But
the cultural and historical fabric of Davidson’s laundry
service certainly won’t get hung out to dry any time soon.
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