Parents of Davidson College students at least don't have to worry about their walking around in dirty underwear. For the past eighty-three years a laundry service fee has been incorporated into mandatory student charges, and it's a price that most students and parents are happy to bear.
"If we did not have the laundry program and someone suggested we institute it and pass on the additional costs to students through mandatory fees, they would probably get laughed out of the office," noted Richard Terry, director of auxiliary services. "But it has been maintained through generations because it's an aspect of the college's cultural and historical fabric that people have come to value."
Terry said the Davidson system of mandatory laundry service for all students is apparently unique nationwide. Senior student Alan Cubre said, "When I tell friends our school does laundry for us, they're absolutely flabbergasted."
Cubre and other students appreciate the system primarily because it saves them a tremendous amount of time and drudgery. Senior Andrew Leventhal said, "It makes things simple and my time is valuable."
Incoming first year students each receive a letter from the college laundry describing the service and prescribing their personal laundry number for the next four years. Students write or sew the number onto each piece of clothing before they arrive on campus.
Students may drop their dirty laundry off at the laundry at any time during business hours. Machine washable items go in one bin, and shirts and pants that need dry cleaning go in another bin. Laundry workers separate the whites and colors, and check pockets for forgotten personal belongings. Once they're clean, the machine-washable clothes are wrapped in brown paper and marked with the student's laundry number. Dry cleaned clothes are covered in plastic marked with the number and hung on a moving carousel. On average, clean clothes are ready for pickup within 48 hours of drop off.
There is no limit on the amount of wash or frequency per student. Aaron Jackson, the laundry manager, said approximately 12,000 pounds of clothes are cleaned per week during the school year. The laundry also operates during the summer to provide clean linen for summer camps and programs, but the load drops to 2,000 pounds per week during that period.
Roughly 1,100 of Davidson's 1,600 students make use of the college laundry on a regular basis. The other 500 or so opt to do their own laundry using the free washers and dryers located in various residence halls around campus.
The system works efficiently in large part because of the college's Honor Code. Because it holds students accountable for their decisions and actions not only in the classroom, but in mundane realms such as the laundry, the college is free to dispense with commonplace security measures and employ more self-service in its operation.
Students receive no receipt when they drop off laundry, and pick up their own wrapped bundles and dry cleaning when they retrieve it. The only form of check-in and check-out is for college-issue bed linens, a system begun just this year to regulate the number of sheets taken and returned at one time.
Terry said laundry isn't lost more than a few times a year--pardoning the occasional sock--if at all. "We haven't left anybody walking around naked yet!" he joked.
The staff of twelve workers maintains the same standards of honor as students. Terry said, "Their honesty is legendary, fueled by stories of wads of cash found in pockets and returned to students who had considered them lost and gone forever."
Senior Benjamin Ferrell offered supporting testimony. He said, "The workers once found a pen and my credit card in my pants pockets and they neatly put them in a little bag for me before they washed my laundry."
Lula Bell Houston, the 80-year-old veteran of the staff recalled a time when she returned a substantial amount of money from a pants pocket to an overjoyed student who wanted to reward her with half of it. "I wouldn't have had any of it if you hadn't been honest and given it to me," he told her.
Jackson spoke highly of his staff. "They're all professional in what they do because they've been doing it so long," he said, noting that several women are second-generation employees of the laundry. Many students know the employees by name and stop to chat when dropping off and picking up their clothes. During the annual Homecoming celebration, alumni frequently swing by the laundry to greet the familiar faces from collegiate days. Jackson said, "Lula Bell I think lives off the hugs from students. She's very, very active!"
Davidson initiated its mandatory laundry service in the 1919-1920 academic year, "for hygienic and other reasons." The initial cost was $2 per month. The service now operates on a fluctuating budget acquired from student fees. Terry estimated that the current cost per student is about $450 per year. Laundry funds not used in the budget year revert to the general college budget.
When the college first admitted women in 1972, a sub-committee on coeducation deemed the laundry service unequipped to satisfactorily launder women's apparel. For that reason, the college installed household-type washers and driers in several residence halls for women and men who wanted to do their own washing. The college has upgraded the laundry equipment and service since then to accommodate women's apparel, and today most women have their clothes cleaned there.
The cultural and historical fabric of Davidson's laundry service certainly won't get hung out to dry any time soon.Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in "Let Learning Be Cherished," a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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