While it may be irritating for students to reload their Coyote Cash to do laundry every week, Director of University Housing John Geske says there’s a lot more to a campus laundry system than meets the eye.

“Annually, from our laundry sales we contribute $60,000 to scholarships for students. So a lot of the money does go back to students,” he said “We like to give back to the students as much as possible.”

A portion of the money also goes toward maintenance.

“A lot of the remainder goes to repairing machines and keeping the service available to students,” Geske added.

Maintaining USD’s laundry facilities is a big job — there are 154 machines on campus to keep in working order.

“Besides showering and restroom usage, laundry is the biggest user of water on a campus,” Geske said.

Because laundry uses such a large amount of water, USD replaced many machines over the summer to reduce its carbon footprint and to save money.

“They don’t use as much water and are more energy efficient,” Geske said. “We replaced all of the machines in North Complex and 14 (machines) in Coyote Village.”

However, Megan Feerick, a resident of North Complex, said she thinks it still takes too long to dry clothes.

“One time I had to dry a normal size load of laundry for 90 minutes,” Feerick said.

Former resident of North Complex Janine Zimbeck agrees that campus laundry services could be better.

“We need at least three if not four washers and dryers on each floor. We also need better quality because you’re paying money and half the time I didn’t even think my clothes were clean when I was done washing them,” Zimbeck said. “I would wait until the dryer was done, and then still have to hang clothes on my bed to dry.”

Geske said the machines do go through a lot of wear-and-tear, and if students are experiencing major issues, the housing office tries to make it easy for them to report. On average, machines are repaired within 48 hours, he said.

“Every machine has a label on it and it tells us the exact machine. Each machine has a QR code so if something’s not working a student can scan the QR code with their phone and it automatically brings up a maintenance report that they can send as is or they can add details,” he said.

By the numbers

North Complex:

• 1,200 students living in building
• 64 machines
• 37.5 students per washer and dryer

Coyote Village:

• 548 students living in building
• 42 machines
• 26.1 students per washer and dryer

Burgess/Norton:

• 334 students living in building
• 25 machines
• 27.8 students per washer and dryer

Brookman:

• 98 students living in building
• 7 total machines
• 32 students per washer and dryer

McFadden:

• 100 students living in building
• 16 machines
• 12.5 students per washer and dryer

*Source: USD Housing