The Undergraduate Student Government announced Sept. 18 that it is proposing a new “Laundry Stipend” project.

The proposed stipend would assist students in paying for their laundry costs with a stipend worth up to $25, according to the written caption accompanying USG’s Instagram announcement post. 

The project will allow students staying in any USC residential housing facility to reallocate the $25 printing stipend they already receive to laundry services.  At any of USC’s printing stations, an 8 1/2 inch x 11 inch single-sided page costs 12 cents to print in black and white and 50 cents in color. A single cycle of a washing machine costs between $1.50 to $1.75, depending on the settings. 

As part of the announcement, USG encouraged students to fill out a feedback form about the proposal.  

“While students living in current USC housing have $25 allocated to their accounts for printing services, many have expressed that they would maximize the use of those funds if they could be used on laundry services,” the organization wrote in the feedback form description. “This project would allow flexibility for USC housing students to use their funds for printing, laundry, or split between both.”

Lydia Costantian, chair of USG’s Affordability and Basic Needs committee, is spearheading the initiative. During USG’s Sept. 19 senate meeting, Costantian spoke excitedly about the new project.

“[We’ve] been working really hard on [the laundry stipend] and we basically want to find a way to use printing funds towards laundry because laundry can get really expensive,” Costantian said.

In the Instagram post, USG labeled the cost of laundry as an “invisible cost.” For Justin Song, a freshman majoring in computer science and business administration, laundry wasn’t exactly the first expense he budgeted for after move-in.

“I was expecting [to budget] for food, basic utensils, phones, internet connections and that was basically it,” Song said. 

In comparison to his home country, Korea, laundry seems to be more expensive in the United States, Song said. For him, being able to use his printing stipend for laundry instead would be beneficial.

“I did expect there [would] be some costs, but I think that [laundry] costs more than what I hoped for,” he said.

On the other hand, Zion Chang, a junior majoring in computer science and a resident of Cale and Irani Residential College, said the laundry stipend project won’t be of much use.

“You would have to fill up your printing anyways. I’m sure no one uses up the whole [printing stipend], but I don’t think that it’d be that useful”, Chang said.