As part of President Courtney Lennartz and Vice President Katelyn Mullen’s platform from last election cycle, the UPUA Executive Board is currently working alongside the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) to explore implementing an online laundry automation system.

The hope is that students living on campus will be able to use a system to check the availability of washers and dryers on their floor or other floors within their residence halls. In addition to that convenience, this technology would be able to notify students via email or text message that their laundry is done, ideally cutting the amount of laundry that’s always left sitting in machines and preventing theft from machines once they unlock at the end of a cycle. One system that’s being heavily explored is Laundry Alert.

However, as with any new program, there are costs to implement it. Currently laundry prices on campus average at about $1.50 per wash and $.50 to dry. The $2 total is the mean of other Big 10 schools. If Housing and Food Services go through with the program, laundry prices would likely rise around $.15 to foot the initial investment plus other yearly costs. In addition to University park — because HFS services all Penn State campuses — an alert system would also be installed at other residential campuses across the commonwealth.

So, faithful Onward State readers, UPUA would like to get your feedback before moving forward. Many other colleges have programs like Laundry Alert — do you think it would be a worthy investment for Penn State?