By Cora Kuykendall
New housing rates will change the way students living in the dorms do laundry.
“Two of the things that we have heard most from students is they want better laundry and wireless Internet,” said Michael Mills, director of housing.
This change will probably put a little more strain on students’ wallets.
Those who live in Pierce, Killingsworth and McCullough-Trigg Hall will have to pay more in housing costs.
Semi-private rooms in Pierce and Killingsworth will now cost $1,675 a semester, a five percent hike from last year.
The biggest increase of 6.4 percent will be for students living in a semi-private room in Mcullough-Trigg.
What Mills has built into the budget is for students to have $50 a semester for laundry instead of having to keep up with an additional card and pay out of pocket.
There are small increases Bridwell Courts, Sunwatcher Village, and Sundance Court.
Residents living in the apartments will not pay the additional laundry fee.
In order to do laundry in the dorms, a student has to purchase and put money on a laundry card, then pay 75 cents per load to wash and dry.
“Our laundry contract is up in 2011 so we have sent that out for bid,” Mills said. “The students were in favor of having laundry rates built into the rent. Students said instead of paying out of pocket, just make it all one deal.”
Killingsworth resident Debroah Rouclox said she would be willing be pay more money in housing fees to have laundry.
“I think it’s awesome,” Rouclox said. “I like It cost almost ten dollars to do laundry every time and you have to reload your card. It gets annoying.”
However, not all residents are for the all-in-one deal.
Most local residents just go home to do laundry so they don’t think it would be fair to make all residents pay a laundry fee.
“It’s a bad luck of the draw,” resident Brent Deeb said. “My parents live ten minutes away so I just do laundry there. It’s a waste of money for me.”
All residents will pay the additional fee to have wireless internet in their rooms.