The Dartmouth Card website explicitly boasts of the many uses of the DASH Discretionary account, with laundry foremost among them.
"The DASH Discretionary account is your key to on-campus life. Washers and dryers are ready to use with a simple swipe of your Dartmouth Card," the website reads.
But students who reside in one of the 15 college-owned affinity or Greek houses still must do their laundry the old-fashioned way: with quarters.
The DASH card readers in these 15 houses are not connected to the campus network that determines the amount of funds in a student's account and therefore remain unusable. Although some preliminary efforts have been made to connect these locations, attempts to finish the wiring have been complicated by the novel nature of the off-campus card-reader system.
"About half of [the work] is on campus and half of it's off," Dartmouth Card office technical service coordinator Scot Stammers said. "A lot of it is waiting on Verizon: this system is like nothing they've ever encountered before. This is their first venture off-campus."
The cost of rent is equal for both on-campus dormitories and college-owned Greek and affinity houses. These houses also have the same amenities as on-campus dormitories, including custodial benefits. Yet unlike dormitory renters, these residents cannot employ DASH discretionary funds to do their laundry.
Money in DASH accounts cannot be converted to cash, so students who have money in their account still cannot do their laundry at their place of residence, and are forced to scrounge for quarters or buy them at the bank.
In early January, the College announced that Mac-Gray Corporation was installing new, more energy-efficient washers and dryers across campus. This undertaking would require a cumulative 50-cent increase to wash and dry one load of laundry. The increased price helps off set Mac-Gray's initial outlay cost of the new equipment.
Mac-Gray also agreed to install card-swipe readers that accept DASH funds in the 15 college-owned houses that previously only accepted quarters to operate the machines.
Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckles stated at the time that the College concluded that students would not mind an increase in laundry prices if they could continue placing the costs on their DASH accounts.
But students residing in the 15 college-owned houses still cannot use DASH due to card-readers that exist but have yet to be wired properly. Nonetheless, they have still been forced to swallow the additional costs -- a total of 12 quarters to wash and dry one load of laundry.
According to Eckles, Mac-Gray, the College and Verizon are focusing on activating an initial system at Sigma Delta sorority, before tackling the other 14 houses slated for activation. Verizon is responsible for installing the wiring.
Mac-Gray connected the Sigma Delt reader on Wednesday, said Stammers, but the card reader is not yet online.
"Once we see how it works at Sigma Delt, then the groups can get together and I'll email the house managers and the Undergraduate Advisors with a time frame for completion," Assistant Director of Residential Operations Bernard Haskell said.
Some of the houses are located on-campus, but their wiring system is deemed "off-campus" status. Stammers said he expected the on-campus wired houses to be hooked up sooner than the off-campus ones.
Delta Delta Delta sorority, Chi Heorot fraternity and the Native Americans at Dartmouth house are among those that operate on the pre-existing "on-campus" network. Other houses, such as Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, Sigma Delt and Fire and Skoal are not already part of the campus-wide network and new wiring must be installed.
Eckles estimated that the rest of the Greek and affinity houses should be up and running a few weeks after Sigma Delt is operational.
However, Stammers could not offer a specific time frame, "I'm waiting, you're waiting, I don't know if we can get it moving any faster. I'd like to get one going this week."
