“See something, say something” is a common phrase used by law enforcement officials to encourage people to report crime and suspicious activity in the interest of public safety. In the residence halls of Northeastern, a similar concept applies to issues you notice with laundry and vending machines that are out of stock, out of order or not working. If you don’t do anything, the problem will only hit another innocent resident and never get fixed.
Commonly people say they don’t know how to report a problem. Thanks to the work of the Resident Student Association (RSA) several years ago, there is an easy way to report problems with card readers and laundry machines. Simply log on to www.laundryview.com, click on your laundry room, and then hit the “Report a Problem” button. Fill out the short form, and the problem will be reported to Northeastern and Mac-Gray, the company that manages on-campus laundry services. If you lost coins, Husky Dollars or Laundry Bucks, there’s a lost money claim form you can fill out to receive a refund check. Alternatively, if you don’t want to send the problem report directly to Mac-Gray, you can e-mail RSA at [email protected] or let your Resident Assistant or Residence Director know about the problem.
For vending machines, you can e-mail [email protected] to report an out of stock or out of order vending machine, or you can e-mail RSA at [email protected].
Of course, remembering what to do isn’t always easy when you’re in the laundry room frustrated that the laundry machine didn’t dry your clothes, or that you lost $4.50 in LaundryBucks because the laundry machine didn’t start. Luckily, in almost every laundry room on campus there is signage that will indicate what to do.
Another great thing we can all do is educate our fellow students. If you are in the laundry room and someone seems mad that they lost their money, let them know how to get it back and how to report the problem so a second, third or fourth student doesn’t lose their money as well.
On another interesting laundry note, you can now get automatically notified when your laundry is finished thanks to TextMe, a service that was added to the laundry rooms during the summer after it was appreciated by students at other institutions like the Georgia Institute of Technology. Some of the other laundry improvements we’re looking at in RSA are adding automatic detergent dispensing, making laundry baskets available and providing more amenities in laundry rooms.
If you ever have an idea related to laundry or anything else in the residence halls, we’re here for you.
– Matthew Soleyn is Resident Student Association vice president for housing services.
