Laundry cards are dead!
Your eyes do not deceive you, Viterbo University’s Board of Trustees has eliminated laundry cards. Come fall of 2020, students will have unlimited access to laundry with no per-load fee. In light of this news, Tommy Krob, student government president, sat down to discuss what led to this landmark achievement for the Viterbo SGA.
Picture this: it’s mid winter and the campus is frozen over. You’re in the basement of Canticle apartments, clothes in the machine. You insert your laundry card in the scanner, and there’s not a dime on it. With no cash on hand and a blizzard outside, “This is hell,” you think to yourself.
It’s a situation that unfortunately, many Viterbo students can relate to. “Laundry is a necessary and basic amenity,” Krob declared. “Everything else is included... we don’t have to pay extra for our shower or swipe a card to do our dishes.”
Krob raises an excellent point. For many students, Viterbo’s current laundry service is unacceptable. Especially frustrating are the cases of those needing to wash active-wear daily. Not to mention the many students with support animals who need bedding washed weekly.
For Krob, this was his call to action. “I thought to myself, ‘someone should do something about this,’ therefore decided that I should be the one to do it…I typed up what I titled the Laundriest Manifesto; then I went to an SGA meeting to voice my complaint.”
Unfortunately for Krob, he “waited weeks... but nothing came from that meeting.” Frustrated by lack of headway, Krob opened his laptop one day to send a follow-up email to the SGA. Coincidentally, he had “received an email about student elections coming up; one of the open slots was for president.”
Krob, as well as those close to him, can agree it was an impulsive decision. However, the presidency placed Krob in the most advantageous position to achieve his goal. He wasted no time. Krob recounted, “Our first meeting, after being sworn in, I put laundry on our agenda.”
However, it was not uphill from there. “Immediately there were roadblocks,” Krob explained. “At first, the answer I received from the university was ‘this can’t happen’; but in reading our contract, I realized it, in fact, could easily happen.”
Again, Krob became frustrated by those who struggled to find importance in this issue. “We can’t because the machines aren’t ours; so we found the company. Then it was we can’t because there is a contract; so we found the contract. Then it was we can’t because it’s too expensive; so we found how expensive it would be.”
Backed by Viterbo’s SGA, who stand to improve the campus experience of students, Krob tackled this opposition. “It became doable,” Krob stated with a smile. “I had to go to the board; but before I did, we reached out to students for support.”
Students were, in fact, supportive of this change. One student, specifically, was senior music theatre major, Cale Rausch. He, in voicing his frustrations with Viterbo’s currant laundry program, compiled a list of the many schools, employing the same laundry company Viterbo does, who enjoy the benefits of unlimited laundry.
“After receiving 400+ replies to the survey,” Krob rejoiced, “we found that over 75% of students are for the change... those numbers were a major help.” In fact, it was this data, direct from the student body, that Krob deducted to be most influential in the board’s decision.
Though laundry cards will continue to reside here, snug in our lanyards, for the coming months, students returning to campus next fall will know them as a distant memory. Credit is undeniably given to Krob; however, he humbly insisted that students are to thank for unlimited laundry.
Students make a difference everyday on campus. Whether it’s obtaining unlimited laundry for all, volunteering for committees, or simply sharing a smile with others, students wield the power to improve life on campus; and I think Krob would agree that no presidential title is required to achieve that.