Loyalist residences see new dishwasher disarray

BELLEVILLE (09/24/12) Lauren Haines loads the dishwasher in her residence kitchen. She said she'd rather have a clothes washer and dryer instead of her new kitchen appliance. Photo by Sarah Armour.

By Sarah Armour

New dishwashers installed in the apartment style residence at Loyalist College are causing students some problems.

Since being installed in the summer, small issues have occurred with the new machines. A number of students in residence have experienced leaks and overflows, due to misuse.

“We’ve had to bring in some contractors to do some under warranty, but (we) quickly fixed and are working on those,” said Dominique Dawes, residence programmer.

Students weren’t informed of the proper way to run the washer or which products to use with the machines. Dawes said the machines did come with manuals, but she is unsure where they ended up after installation.

After taking a Facebook survey, giving students the option to vote on what they wanted renovated or added to residence, the decision was made to add dishwashers to all kitchens. Although there have been minor problems with the dishwashers, most students are happy the residence’s money was spent on the washers.

“You can always bring your own TV to res you can’t bring a dishwasher, and it benefits the students to not doing dishes anymore and they can focus more time on their studies,” said Davis Scheel, a second year student.

“They could have used the money for a different thing such as a washer or dryer,” said Lauren Haines, another second year student.

Dawes said she has seen an overall improvement in the cleanliness of apartments. “Even during the room inspections I found that the apartments are in a cleaner state, I’ve even opened the dishwashers to see dishes in them.”

She said roommate issues about dishes have been eliminated because of the new dishwashers.

With better instructions, and information on the machine students could have avoided some problems, but for now residence staff have the issues under control, said Dawes.