Universities Weblog

Got dust?

A new venture called DormAid is here to help. Started by a couple of Harvard students, DormAid (known first as DorMaid until officials nixed the moniker for sexist overtones) offers to clean your room for a fee, starting at $18. So far, the company has set up shop at Harvard, Princeton and Boston University.

Naturally, nothing happens in higher education without a protest. It seems some Harvard students have pointed out that only rich kids can afford such a luxury, and that hiring DormAid is simply a show of affluence (along with laziness). Here, courtesy of the New York Times, is how the student newspaper, the Crimson, addressed the issue:

"Hiring someone to clean dorm rooms is a convenience, but it is also an obvious display of wealth that would establish a perceived, if unspoken, barrier between students of different economic means," the editorial said. "It's up to each one of us to ensure that our peers feel comfortable on campus, and if that means plugging in a vacuum every two weeks, then so be it."Can we count the number of ways students can display wealth, especially in Cambridge, home to trendy shops and expensive restaurants? Everyone knows Harvard enrolls lots of rich kids, as do other Ivies and top schools. They also enroll lots of middle-class and poor students. Signs of socio-economic class divisions are everywhere. DormAid is just one more example.

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