While laundry facilities in Ellicott have improved, residents of Clement Hall on South Campus have voiced concerns that their washers and dryers aren't being fixed in a timely fashion, even after one dryer caught fire last month.
A Residence Advisor in Clement Hall, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he and his residents have been told by officials that UB won't justify calling in the Statewide Maintenance Company to fix the problem until half the machines are broken at once.
"We (on South Campus) get the short end of the stick on so many levels, from buses that don't come to washers and dryers that break and then don't get repaired for weeks," the RA said. "We've actually had the laundry issue come up at Hall Council meetings because it was taking so long to get the equipment fixed."
The RA referred specifically to an incident on Sept. 4, where a dryer on the third floor in the North end of Clement triggered a fire alarm. According to the safety report, there was smoke coming from the dryer and Buffalo Fire Department responded to the alarm.
The affected laundry room was locked for at least a week after the incident, and the dryer was covered with "Do Not Use" signs and left unfixed for five weeks, according to the RA.
In Clement Hall, as well as the smaller dormitory halls on South Campus, the laundry machines were moved out of the basements and into the halls. In Clement Hall, there are two washers and two dryers per floor.
According to Joe Krakowiak, director of University Residence Halls and Apartments, the facilities were moved and the basements were closed because they were too inhospitable for students.
"We just didn't want our students doing their laundry in those conditions. Furthermore, there have been incidents of flooding in those basements, so we just locked them off entirely," Krakowiak said. "This past spring, we asked the students on South Campus what they would like to see changed and one of the requests is that they wanted more laundry facilities. We've brought some in, as much as we could afford at the time, and will continue to do so over winter break."
Maureen Finn, a freshman psychology major and Clement resident, said that so far this year the laundry facilities in her building have been less than perfect.
"The first month, a washer and a dryer on my floor were broken, leaving us with one dryer that worked and one washer, which you had to manually set to the spin cycle," Finn said. "It's getting out of hand."
Jessica Miller, an undeclared freshman and also a Clement resident, echoed Finn's concerns.
"We were told that once half of the washers and dryers are broken, then they'd get fixed. They won't fix them individually," Miller said. "I just want my washers and dryers to get fixed, that's really not an outlandish request."
Miller added that because of the recent issues with the laundry facilities, there have been conflicts between students trying to use the laundry rooms.
"People are getting ridiculous about it," she said. "They're getting territorial over who's using the machines on their floor, trying to determine if you really live on that floor or if you're sneaking up to another floor to use that floor's washers or dryers. It's just getting dumb."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
