Just a few weeks before the spring semester started, a water main burst underneath Fifth Avenue and damaged the University Center’s Kerry Hall’s basement facilities, which include both the laundry and mailroom. The New School’s solution was to move those facilities to 16th Street, and give students the opportunity to drop off their laundry with a service provided by the school, at a cost of $2.50 per wash and fold load. Some students had difficulties with the new system.

The laundry system involves a sign-in system where you confirm you turning in your laundry and pay – students say it’s a hassle.  “I have still not done my laundry because the school system does not allow me to sign in,” Parsons freshman Ida Kohen told the Free Press. Kohen and other students who were not able to sign in are now forced to look for the nearest Laundromat, which is on thirteenth and University Place.

Parsons sophomore Jasmine Kohen had similar troubles signing into the system.  “Because of this I was not able to pick up my laundry until nine days later,” she said and added that no one from the working staff knew how to solve her problems when she asked for help.

The quick solutions for the unexpected flooding gave the workers little time to adjust to the facilities. “The new facilities are not just new to students, but for workers too,” Kohen said.

The temporary mail system has proven problematic for some students as well. Kohen’s suitemate lost said she lost her mail, which included an envelope containing $300 due to the mailroom’s relocation to 16th Street.

“No matter how hard we try to set up a new system, there are always going to be some problems,” Assistant Vice President for Housing & Residence Life Robert Lutomski told the Free Press.

“Just like the new University Center, you have to experience it to work out what works and what doesn’t.” According to Lutomski, the problems regarding students’ complaints about the mail and laundry have been solved and that all the facilities will be back in Kerry Hall by summer, or at the latest, by fall.

After a week, and the initial frustration of adjusting etc. had passed, Kohen admitted that she was happy with the laundry service.

“They found my laundry in the end and my clothes came back clean and folded,” she said.