NIU is considering a new system that could make doing laundry easier than ever.

IBM and USA Technologies recently announced a plan to Web-enable about 9,000 washing machines and dryers on college campus nationwide.

The system – called e-Suds – is aimed to integrate the Internet with a number of laundry actions, including delivering an e-mail when washing is complete. It also will allow students to control the release of fabric softener with the click of a mouse.

Would NIU’s Student Housing and Dining Services be interested in installing a laundry system like e-Suds?

“Yes, is the answer,” said Linda Tillis, the associate director for Student Housing and Dining. “I think it would be just great.”

She’s considering trying the system at NIU. But in order to implement it, she would have to make sure that the software would work with NIU’s OneCard ID.

“I’d be surprised if this would be implemented before next summer,” she said.

Students can pay for the service with an ID card or by cellular phone, and can check online to when a washing machine becomes available in a crowded laundry room.

“It would be more convenient and less time-consuming for students,” said Robert Searles, a sophomore computer science major. “Making things so complicated takes away from the time students can be taking care of business.”

Tillis said she first heard about similar laundry systems a couple of years ago, but she found the companies that offered them were located primarily in eastern states. The systems weren’t available to universities in Illinois – until now.

E-Suds will be available across the nation, said IBM spokesperson Dave Stone.

“At this point,” he said, “there have been only a couple colleges that have committed to it.”

The system was conceived to help out students who commonly have a problem finding an open washing machine, as well as people who may not remove their load as soon as it’s done washing or drying.

In an informal survey of 12 NIU students, two-thirds agreed that the system would make it much easier to do laundry.

“I think the laundry room is nice. Except for the fact that there are too many people doing laundry at all times of the day and people leave the laundry in the washers and dryers,” said freshman art major Anna Riney, who’s frustrated with NIU’s current laundry room situation.

For students who like things just the way they are now, the new technology would just be an addition. Tillis said she would make sure that students still could pay with a OneCard before any such system is implemented.

However, many students seem to like the new high-tech options.

“This is 2002,” said Cyndi Raisanen, a sophomore elementary education major. “We have many technological advances and NIU is a big school. We should take advantage of them.”

Campus editor Jeff Goluszka contributed to this report.