2008 Woodie Awards
Work hard, play hard?
The controversial DormAid cleaning and laundry service comes to Miami
Cassidy Pazyniak
Issue date: 8/28/07 Section: Features
Miami University students who have dirty laundry piled as high as the ceiling or can no longer see the floor due to a messy room, take note, because there is a new service available that is trying to make life a little easier-and cleaner.
DormAid-in its first year on Miami's campus-markets itself as a service to help out students living both on and off campus, dealing with the activities found behind partying, seeing friends and eating.
Using the company Web site-DormAid.com-students can order bedding packages, a water delivery service, an Internet service that backs up files, room cleaning or the most popular-laundry service.
The bedding packages, the Internet back up service and the water delivery can be ordered off of the Web site for over, and are available to, 1,800 different colleges. However, the laundry and room cleaning are currently only offered at 31 schools-Miami being one of them.
DormAid representative Roy Moran explained that there are two ways in which the company can be brought to a campus.
DormAid's first step is to check the immediate income of parents of students to see where their services are most likely to sell. The second way is to hire an on-campus representative to run the business.
"If a student shows a lot of interest we give them a chance to run their own company," Moran said. "It's kind of our company mission to empower entrepreneurs so they can see what they like."
The company originated at Harvard University by then sophomore Michael Kopko in 2004.
The service was soon attracting a great deal of media attention including from CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and "The Daily Show." It even received criticism from Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, where the article questioned if offering a "maid" service created a social class divide.
The article stated that dorm life is one of the few instances in which students are all on an equal level.
Miami sophomore Mark Loudenslagel, who still lives on campus, views DormAid as just an easy way out for some students.
DormAid-in its first year on Miami's campus-markets itself as a service to help out students living both on and off campus, dealing with the activities found behind partying, seeing friends and eating.
Using the company Web site-DormAid.com-students can order bedding packages, a water delivery service, an Internet service that backs up files, room cleaning or the most popular-laundry service.
The bedding packages, the Internet back up service and the water delivery can be ordered off of the Web site for over, and are available to, 1,800 different colleges. However, the laundry and room cleaning are currently only offered at 31 schools-Miami being one of them.
DormAid representative Roy Moran explained that there are two ways in which the company can be brought to a campus.
DormAid's first step is to check the immediate income of parents of students to see where their services are most likely to sell. The second way is to hire an on-campus representative to run the business.
"If a student shows a lot of interest we give them a chance to run their own company," Moran said. "It's kind of our company mission to empower entrepreneurs so they can see what they like."
The company originated at Harvard University by then sophomore Michael Kopko in 2004.
The service was soon attracting a great deal of media attention including from CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and "The Daily Show." It even received criticism from Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, where the article questioned if offering a "maid" service created a social class divide.
The article stated that dorm life is one of the few instances in which students are all on an equal level.
Miami sophomore Mark Loudenslagel, who still lives on campus, views DormAid as just an easy way out for some students.
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