Adams Partners With HSA For Free Laundry After Machines Break Down

Updated October 2, 2025, at 6:45 p.m.

Harvard Student Agencies gained a new customer for its wash-and-fold laundry services this semester: Adams House residents.

When many newly installed laundry machines were knocked out of commission because of insufficient electrical capacity, Adams House announced that Westmorly Court, Randolph Hall, and Russell Hall residents could join HSA’s laundry program for free while the House remedies the amenity, according to an email sent to residents Wednesday.

“As many of you have noticed, several laundry machines in the Russell basement are still out of order as we continue to investigate and repair the electrical issue causing the outage,” Matthew Burke, Adams House House administrator, wrote in an email to Randolph, Russell, and Westmorly residents.

Residents were told by House administrators that “the electrical issue” was that the laundry room’s new electrical board supplied an insufficient amount of wattage to power all of the laundry machines.

Harvard College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo wrote in an email that repair work “could be completed as early as the end of this week.”

Students in Adams have celebrated their newly reopened House. Out-of-service laundry machines are not the only problems that cropped up following renovations in Russell Hall and Westmorly Court that residents noticed following the building’s August unveiling. Though the building underwent more than two years of construction, leaks flooded Westmorly Court rooms during heavy rain and several iconic common spaces are still closed off to residents as they undergo finishing touches.

The laundry breakdown also comes after a recent increase in laundry prices, which Harvard raised by a quarter a load at the beginning of the semester.

Residents expressed frustration with the unavailability of functional laundry machines.

“Half of the laundry machines do not work for three-fourths of Adams House,” Evan W. Hsiang ’26 said. “It’s really a nuisance to do laundry.”

For some, laundry service interruptions exacerbated accessibility issues.

“Doing laundry is always difficult because I’m blind,” said Milagros Costabel ’25, who is set to graduate at the end of the semester. “When I decide to do it, I’m like, ‘Okay, I will put myself in a difficult situation.’ And every time I go there, the machines don’t work, so I need to come up with all the clothes, with my dog, with everything.”

To compensate for the inconvenience, Harvard House Renewal is footing the bill for registered Adams students to receive a “light” HSA laundry plan, HSA President Asha M. Khurana ’27 said.

This plan, which would normally retail for $349 per semester, allows students to place HSA laundry bags outside of their room and request pick-up online. The laundry bags are washed and returned the following day.

“This was our dream project, where Harvard is sponsoring laundry coverage for a month for students and it comes at no cost to students,” Khurana said. So far, Khurana estimates that 100 to 110 Adams House students have joined the free laundry program.

Harvard projected that it would take approximately three weeks to repair the laundry machines, according to Khurana.

“They basically said as long as the laundry rooms are down, that they would pay for it,” Khurana said. “They’re trying to give back to the students. They want this to be great.”

HSA has partnered with Harvard in the past to provide similar services while two Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences buildings underwent construction, Khurana said.

Several Adams residents still opted out of joining the HSA laundry program. Instead, students explored other alternatives, like avoiding washing or going at odd times to avoid the rush.

“I’ve just been not doing my laundry,” Kate E. Castorena ’28 said, adding that “every single time I’ve gone,” all of the laundry machines have been in use.

Sydney O. Wiredu ’26 went late in the evening to secure a spot in the laundry line-up.

“Kind of have to find weird times to do laundry. I did my laundry at 2 a.m. the other night,” Wiredu said. “I would’ve been awake either way, though.”

“There were actually other people doing their laundry,” he said.

Others, like Emil J. Droga ’26-27, said they were “unaffected” by the laundry machine shortage.

“Usually there’s one free,” Droga said. “Everything is closed, but I just happen to time it perfectly.”

“I don’t think people are that vocal about it,” William A. Hu ’27 said. “It’s just laundry at the end of the day, right? It’s not like we’re waiting in lines.”

—Staff writer Harmony G Fisher can be reached at harmony.fisher@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.