Gummere Washers Broken, Residents Outraged

[Note: Many of the students interviewed for this article wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. The Clerk recognizes this and respects their anonymity.]

Gummere has long been known as the worst dorm on campus, due to its crawling insect population, the “Gum Plague” (a nickname for the rapid spread of illness in the dorm), and the odd organization and layout of the halls. Whenever someone complains about these issues, most just shrug and say, “That’s Gum for you,” but how bad will it get before it becomes unlivable? And how bad will it get before it’s finally renovated?

Recently, many students have expressed their outrage and anger related to one essential issue in the dorm: the laundry situation. Gummere, which houses approximately 150 first-year students—nearly twice as many as Jones Hall, the next largest first-year dorm with around 80 residents—faces a significant mismatch between student population and laundry resources. Despite the disparity in occupancy, all first-year dorms are equipped with the same number of machines: six washers and six dryers. This uniform distribution has left Gummere residents struggling with long waits and an overcrowded laundry room.

Compounding this issue, the few machines that Gummere does have frequently break down. Throughout the 2024-2025 academic year, washers broke several times, which took the facilities managers several days to repair. In recent weeks, 4/6 of these washers have stopped working, limiting the ability of the 150 residents to do their laundry. 

Many Gummere residents, such as Owen Kennedy ‘28, have complained about the laundry issue to The Clerk. The 3/3 resident expresses, “It’s awful, people are lining up in the laundry room for 20+ minutes to wait for a machine to open up. Others are doing laundry in the wee hours of the morning.” With only two washing machines working, students have become desperate for an hour-and-a-half window to do their laundry. Another 3/3 resident states, “I have done laundry at 7:00 a.m., and I have done it at 3:00 a.m., and both times there was laundry running before and after mine.” Many students have to carefully plan out when they’re going to wash their clothes. “It forces me, and everyone else I know in Gum, to divert my attention from classes, studying, and enjoying what free time I have towards strategizing when and how I’ll be able to do my laundry and having to plan it well in advance lest I simply run out of clothes,” a third 3/3 student tells The Clerk. 

With these recent machine malfunctions starting in mid-late April, students have filed work orders with Facilities Management to fix the washers. However, after many requests, no one has shown up to resolve the issue. One student went as far as writing “a lengthy email to ResLife asking for our sake and the sake of the incoming class that more machines be added, since the failure of the machines is a vicious cycle in which a machine breaks, which increases the load on the other machines, which makes them break and so on.” 

Almost all of Gummere uses their dorm-wide GroupMe to communicate when the washers are available. Though this system is in place, some don’t have the patience to wait their turn, and can be seen “camping out to guarantee that they get a machine when it finishes.” As they wait, however, they form a line to wait outside the laundry room to avoid the constant flooding from the overused washers. 

Beyond the inconvenience of disrupted routines and long waits, students are increasingly concerned about the risk of the remaining machines breaking down due to placing too many clothes in the washers. Another 3/3 resident stated, “Due to there being only two washers, I fear people may pack the washers full so they can avoid having to wait for another one. I’m worried this could break our last remaining washers.” A 2/1 resident recalls, “They [ResLife] sent out an email basically blaming us for misusing the machines, acting like we don’t know how to do laundry.” 

Although the semester is almost over, students are urging the college to fix this issue. Some, including a 3/3 resident, suggest broader solutions like “Better maintenance in general.” Others, though, are thinking ahead for the class of 2029 and are demanding more washers. One student expresses: “My friends in all the other freshman dorms have told me they do not have this issue. It’s simply not fair to have the same amount of washers in Gum as there are in the other dorms, when Gum has a significantly larger population.” 

Although Gummere is commonly known as the worst dorm on Haverford’s campus–due to the population density, rampant rodents, and cold showers–people often turn a blind eye to it. With the Class of 2029 allegedly bringing over 400 new students, it’s time to fix these issues because, as a 3/3 resident puts it: “Between the broken, crowded washers and the cold showers, Gum residents are going to start smelling in years to come.”