Free Laundry Has a Price. Let’s Make It Worth Paying.

Harvard’s found a new way to do its laundry — and its books.

Beginning in January, laundry will be free for all undergraduates. Previously, Harvard leaned on laundry payments to fund House Committees while the Student Activities Fee also contributed to a variety of campus events. These costs are now laundered through making the SAF — a formerly optional $200 annual bill — mandatory, and raising it to $450.

There’s no such thing as free laundry — but this change is still welcome news. We’ve long argued that the SAF should be required and covered by financial aid. Now it’s time for us to put these increased funds to good use.

The rationale for an obligatory SAF is simple: If everyone benefits from a vibrant campus, everyone should chip in. In each of the past two years, more than 900 students opted out of paying entirely. Last year, that punched a roughly $70,000 hole in the budgets for House Committees, the Harvard Undergraduate Association, and campus-wide events like Crimson Jam and Yardfest.

That said, the ability to pay isn’t shared evenly. In the past, opting out allowed low-income students to put the $200 toward other expenses. We’re glad the College has apparently promised to ensure that students on financial aid don’t have to pay more moving forward as a result — an easy and fair way to follow through would be covering the fee as part of aid packages. After all, no one should have to pick up extra shifts to subsidize a club scene they’re too busy to enjoy.

Equity shouldn’t stop at the size of the fee either — it should guide where the revenue flows. If Harvard is going to collect more, it owes students more — and better. Funding allocations should be accessible to all, and distributed by size, need, and mission.

Large, open clubs that serve hundreds of students should win funds over exclusive, competitive ones. Nonprofit organizations serving the community benefit should beat quasi-businesses seeking to pad their bottom lines. House Committees besides Eliot's deserve nice dinners, too.

And if the College is about to give students the money to make campus fun again, it also needs to trust them with it.

That means letting clubs actually use the money without setting up red tape every time joy is involved. What we’ve previously called Harvard’s “abstinence-only” rules on parties and gatherings have left campus culture running on fumes. After years of post-pandemic caution, students deserve a little sanctioned chaos.

With the new SAF, we glimpse a better student experience on the horizon. Fewer fundraisers, cheaper tickets, more art, more speaker events, better free food — and yes, better concerts. If a little bit of that SAF change goes towards booking a better Crimson Jam headliner, we’ll be even happier to fork over the cash.

Harvard has hiked the cover charge on campus life — let’s make the party worth it.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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