The most strenuous task demanded of college students is to walk: Walk to class. Walk to lunch. Walk to a library. Walk to more classes and then walk to a car or residence hall.
The dreaded chore of carrying dirty clothes to a laundry room seems to be the straw that snaps the student’s back.
In lieu of trudging to a laundry room or the cleaners, students can instead take advantage of the new system, Bama Laundry Service.
This garment care program, piloted by the SGA, enables students, faculty and staff to send off their dirty clothes to be laundered, dry cleaned, folded and returned by Bama Laundry and Dry Cleaning.
SGA President James Fowler said in an e-mailed statement that the intention behind Bama Laundry is to lighten the load for students.
“We wanted to give students access to a program that makes everyday tasks like doing laundry easier,” Fowler said. “No student wants to spend their college time washing clothes or running to the dry cleaners. SGA has partnered with Bama Laundry and Housing to provide this helpful service. We hope the pilot program succeeds and that this service will lighten the load on students for years to come.”
Chief Implementation Officer Jesse Blount said in an e-mailed statement that he hopes students will take advantage of this valuable service.
“Bringing this service to our student body is a great achievement for SGA and our new Office of Implementation,” Blount said. “Working on projects that have the potential to impact each student’s daily life is rewarding, and I hope to see Bama Laundry utilized.”
The two services offered are Bama Bundle and Campus Cleaners.
According to the company’s homepage, the Bundled Service is designed for machine-washable clothing.
“This service is for all machine washable clothes–sheets, towels, underclothes, shirts, pants, etc.,” the website reads. “Items are washed, dried, folded and packaged. Students choose Annual or Semester Bundled Plans of 10, 20 or 30 lbs per week.”
If a customer skips a week of laundering service, that customer can send up to twice the clothing to be cleaned as he or she has registered to pay for the following week. Moreover, clothing can exceed the designated weight limit on any week of service to then be charged an additional $1.50 per pound.
Campus Cleaners, on the other hand, is designed for clothes normally dropped off at the local cleaners to be returned on a hanger.
“With or without Bundled Service, the Campus Cleaners is for everything you want returned on hangers,” the website reads. “College is a difficult place to hang dry anything, so you’ll simply wear these items a little more between sending them to the Campus Cleaners.”
In contrast to Bama Bundle’s payment plan, clothing laundered through Campus Cleaners is charged per item and totaled on a monthly basis.
Students can deposit dirty clothes or retrieve their cleaned ones at laundry service trucks stationed at various residence halls across campus. Working hours for the trucks run from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Students can locate the trucks and their hours of service at universitylaundry.com. Click on the blue “Learn More” logo to proceed.
Nathan Watkins, owner of the company contracted to provide the Bama Laundry program, said the truck routes may extend to fraternity and sorority houses or off-campus if the program attracts enough customers.
He said these prospective routes, if executed, would not interfere with the routes that service the campus.
Watkins said inside residence hall service, however, is not feasible.
“Any sort of inside dorm presence becomes a logistics nightmare,” Watkins said. “A dorm is not built with the layout needed for people to pick up laundry bags.”
Watkins also said the SGA has been instrumental in bringing about this program.
“There is a tremendous group of students and administrators working hard to make these things happen,” Watkins said.
