On Aug. 7, many students returning to Case Western Reserve University’s on-campus housing received an email from the Office of University Housing containing fall semester move-in information. In the email, “new laundry machines” were briefly mentioned. This was a result of a new contract the university signed regarding laundry services before the start of the academic year.
Vern Rogers, executive director of University Housing, explained, “This is a new laundry services contract with Fowler Laundry Solutions. The services provided are similar to the prior contract; no additional cost washing and drying and web-enabled machine tracking. University Housing reviewed proposals and interviewed several vendors. Fowler was chosen as the best combination of overall value, service offered, and reliability based on references.”
There is no relationship between the Fowler Center in the Weatherhead School of Management, which relates to CWRU Trustee Chuck D. Fowler, and Fowler Laundry, which is run by Douglas Fowler.
As reported previously by The Observer, CSC ServiceWorks was the previous holder of CWRU’s laundry services contract. Fowler, based in New Jersey, currently has an F rating on the Better Business Bureau’s website for unsubstantiated advertising. For reference, the Columbus, Ohio, office of CSC has a D rating.
CWRU is one of many university locations that contain Fowler’s machines, alongside the Fashion Institute of Technology, Onondaga Community College, Eastern Illinois University and Framingham State University. Neumann College’s student newspaper, NeuPress, ran a 2013 article highlighting similar complaints of the company’s handling of poor washing machines as CWRU students have with CSC.
Rogers said that CWRU now has “Over 350 new washers and dryers” across university-operated residence halls and Greek life houses in order “to provide better laundry services to students.” He said, “Laundry is built-in as part of students’ housing fees so there was no new cost to the university or campus residents.”
This means new laundry machines are installed in all CWRU operated on-campus housing, including the new South Residential Village buildings: the Mary Chilton Noyes and John Sykes Fayette Houses. Students who arrived on campus early reported that the machines were not fully installed, but Rogers said that they were all plugged in by Aug. 16.
Both new sets of dryer and washing machines look incredibly similar, with a gray plastic panel exterior. The only way of easily differentiating the machines is the different red warning labels in front of the machines. This is a change from previous versions, which had large visual differences between the washers and dryers.
Besides the different look of the machines, very little is changing for the typical user of the laundry machines. The buttons used to select the laundry setting have already appeared in existing machines, such as those in Triangle Towers. However, the main difference comes when students must report a defective machine using Fowler’s website and phone line.
LaundryView, the machine-tracking app, no longer works for CWRU laundry machines. Instead, signs around laundry rooms direct students to download an app called KioSoft CampusView, which prompts users to enter in a code or scan a QR code. The Fowler-branded QR codes on the machines were not recognized by the app, and the space on the sign for the manual code was not filled in as of Aug. 20.
An examination of various laundry facilities across the university’s campus shows that these new appliances were manufactured in the past few years. For example, all of the laundry machines in the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Residence Hall and on the first floor of the Noyes Hall were manufactured in 2024, and those in Village House 6 came from 2023 and 2022. All of the available dryers examined by The Observer were built in 2023 and are models manufactured by LG instead of Whirlpool. Interestingly, the webpage for the particular models shows a card insert slot, which the versions at CWRU have covered with a piece of plastic paneling with various symbols engraved. The machines themselves were built in South Korea.
The news of new laundry machines across CWRU has been met with joy by members of the CWRU community. A parent mentioned on Facebook that “It really happened folks!” A student said, “I wish I could have one of those machines” for when they were on campus.
An unexpected highlight, though, came from a chime that gets played after each machine is done with its cycle. A resident assistant expressed joy that “They play a little tune” once they are ready for unloading. A resident of a university-owned Greek house expressed a similar sentiment because the jingle at the end of the cycle allowed them to know when to unload the machine when sitting in the common areas of their residence hall.
However, the machines are not without their warnings, specifically on a sticker on the sides that warns simply, “Cancer and Reproductive Harm.” This refers to reporting requirements under California Proposition 65 for the presence of chemicals that might cause the stated effects. The most common reasons for this warning in appliances can come from flame retardants and phthalates in internal components.
In previous semesters, laundry has been a sore spot for students. From entire buildings not having any working appliances to machines causing flooding and other issues, the promised free laundry services often confuse and disappoint CWRU students.
Such discrepancies in what is offered to students have resulted in more entrepreneurially-minded students founding their own laundry company, Spartan Laundry Company. The company charges upward of $600 for weekly laundry throughout the semester, and this allows one of their representatives to pick up and transfer the clothes to a professional laundromat, returning them within 48 hours. This comes out to roughly $42 per load of laundry.
As a result, many members of the CWRU community—from returning fourth-year students hoping for less stress to parents worried about their first-year student having clean clothes for the first day of classes—are hoping that the new laundry machines mean a general improvement in their reliability for students who are desperately seeking a solution for clean clothes.