March 11, 2005
"Help, We're Being Repressed by The Ever Present Capitalist Hegemony!"
The Harvard Crimson has come out against a student owned and operated maid service---despite Harvard's approval of said service---is calling for a student boycott because they believe it will separate the haves and have-nots even further.
{...}Dormaid, founded by Michael E. Kopko ’07, is a cleaning service that allows students to avoid the perennial problem of dingy, smutty, questionably-habitable rooms. But as appealing as the thought of a perpetually tidy room may be, (independent of family visits), Dormaid could potentially mess up as many rooms as it cleans. By creating yet another differential between the haves and have-nots on campus, Dormaid threatens our student unity.{...}The egalitarian nature of dorm life helps to foster a sense of collegiate camaraderie, an unadulterated respect for peers; it generates a level playing field that encourages learning between people of all upbringings. A service like Dormaid can bring many levels of awkwardness into this picture. For example, do two people sharing a double split the cost? What if one wants the service and the other does not? What if one cannot afford it? 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.
{...}Although Harvard has given its approval, students don’t have to. We urge the student body to boycott Dormaid. Everyone’s certainly busy, but Harvard students shouldn’t choose convenience over healthy relationships with their blockmates. 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.
Quite honestly, I'd always assumed they already had maid service at Harvard.
Learn something new everyday, don't you?
Posted by Kathy at March 11, 2005 01:56 PMI presume that these sensitive little prodigies eschew toothbrushes, deodorant, and hand soap lest impecunious peers feel uncomfortable at displays of personal hygiene wrought with retail goods they might be hard-pressed to afford. Just when you think you've heard it all from the aspiring members of the proletwitriat, they go and get creative on you.
Posted by: Axel Kassel at March 11, 2005 02:19 PMBut it's wealth transfer from the haves to the have-nots, just that the have-nots need to do something for the wealth transfer. Or does the Harvard Crimson want people to stay poor?
Posted by: RobertJ at March 11, 2005 03:25 PMWhy don't they add a new student fee so that everyone on campus can get their room cleaned. Colleges are real good at that kind of crap.
Posted by: Raina at March 11, 2005 03:56 PMTypical parlor leftism: better to deny the have-nots an opportunity to make a few bucks through honest labor than to have to acknowledge their existence.
BTW, given the squalid conditions that seem to prevail in Harvard dorms, perhaps department deans ought to be replaced with hog drovers.
Posted by: D. Carter at March 12, 2005 11:32 PM