Ceara Murphy | Staff Writer | cmurphy10@mail.smcvt.edu
Damaged clothing torn in half after going through the washing machine cycle in Auburn laundry room in Feb. 2025.
The laundry facilities on campus have recently received complaints and concerns about machine malfunctions, which result in burnt and damaged clothes. Over the last few months, students have experienced their clothes being damaged due to malfunctions.
Isabella DelVecchio, ’26, has had a number of problems with the school’s laundry machines. “This has honestly happened too many times,” DelVecchio said. “The first time it happened was the dryer in Pontigny Hall. They did nothing about it.” Her damaged clothing totaled up to $200 the first time it happened. After emailing the Residential Life office at the college, the problem was never addressed, the machines weren’t fixed, nor was she reimbursed by the school.
A similar incident happened again to DelVecchio. “I’ve had this happen to me in the twos multiple times, first in the fall, and then recently I put in work orders and they haven’t fixed it for hours and hours… I can’t even get the washer open and they don’t do anything for hours.”
DelVicchio has not been satisfied with the school’s response to her situation, as the school hasn’t reached out and offered to pay. DelVicchio said she feels like she has not gotten a sincere response. “Whenever I called Res-Life, they just told me to call the number on the washing machine, so I would say they were no help,” she said.
“Laundry concerns go through the Mac-Gray company itself,” said Megan Ohler, senior associate and director of housing operations, in an email to the Defender.
Mac-Gray Services is a laundry service vendor owned by CSC ServiceWork that contracts with college campuses, as well as individuals and households. According to Joel Ribout, director of facilities at the college, the school currently has a lease with Mac-Gray. All service related problems like broken machines or damage to clothes need to be reported through the company’s online system. In the laundry rooms at St. Michael’s, there are posters referencing how to contact Mac-Gray Services.
Other students have also had problems with these machines. Anna Bergstrom, ’28, and Ruby Harrington, ’28, have experienced problems in first-year housing. “I feel the amount of washers and dryers is really inadequate for the amount of people that live in freshman housing, specifically Alumni,” said Harrington, a resident of Alumni Hall. “It doesn’t help that at least one of them [washer or dryer machine] is out of order,” Harrington said.
Alumni Hall’s laundry room is located in the basement. This room, which is comparable to the dorms themselves in size, has a total of less than twenty combined washers and dryers.
The Defender reached out to the Mac-Gray via email, but no response was received.
Bergstrom, another resident of Alumni, experienced a similar situation to DelVecchio. “I’ve lost $100 worth of clothing to the laundry system,” she said. Bergstrom also said she doesn’t intend on reaching out to be reimbursed, because she’s heard stories of how Residential Life won’t reimburse students with damaged clothes.
Since St. Michael’s has a lease agreement with Mac-Gray and does not own the machines, Ribout said the college is not responsible for damaged clothes. All requests for reimbursement need to go through Mac-Gray.
Students not wanting to use the online system can call the Mac-Gray customer service line if in need of further assistance by calling (800)-622-4729. On the phone line students can find help getting reimbursements and suggestions on how to prevent laundry incidents.
Bergstrom and Harrington both said they thought a new updated laundry system is the clear solution. “New laundries, we need a new system, that’s the solution,” Bergstrom said.
According to Ribout, St. Michael’s lease with Mac-Gray ends this year and the college plans to use a new company for laundry services next year.
For now, in the event of burnt or damaged clothes, first reach out to residential life. If there’s a fire due to the malfunction of the burning of clothes, contact the switchboard.