Maid Service in College = Class Warfare?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-03-23 02:48pm

There was a brief story on one of the evening news shows the other day about a maid service created by a Harvard Business School Junior (Sophomore at the time he started it up) where a student pays $40-50 and a maid comes in for a few hours and cleans out his dorm room.

Harvard has been mulling over banning this service after the Hardvard Crimson newspaper had a very vocal editorial about how this maid service is creating a perception that emphasizes the haves and have nots among the student body. They feel that the poorer students would have their self esteem hurt and that it might create rancor among the student body along class lines.

Only in Harvard I guess could they come up with this nonsense. So I guess College is supposed to be a bubble for these kids where we pretend that in the real world everyone cleans up their own room and there is no such thing as have nots. Frankly when a school produces and over abundance of grads that will undoubtably be among the haves in the very near future I don't have much sympathy for them now.

College should be exposing these kids to the real world not sheltering them in these fucking bubbles of equality and fairness because the real world is NOTHING like that.

But my views aside do you agree with the Harvard Crimson's view about this service and in general that a student body should not be made aware of class or economic differences?

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2005-03-23 02:53pm

I would understand it if they were students doing maid service for others as their part-time job.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-03-23 02:56pm

Slartibartfast wrote:I would understand it if they were students doing maid service for others as their part-time job.

It is an outside cleaning service that the kid running the show outsources to - many of the maids are middle aged cleaning ladies like the ones you see in offices late at night.

BTW They showed the state of some of these dorm rooms, CD's stuck together by god knows what, dishes piled up like Mount Rushmore, general filth. Christ College kids, clean the fuck up!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-03-23 03:00pm

so by that logic they should stop students from driving BMWs and Mercedes' onto campus parking lots because it might make other students who can't afford such feel bad that they don't have as deep of pockets, right?

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2005-03-23 03:00pm

Well, in that case, it's not much different from banning pizza delivieries because some of the students can't afford them. Or calling the repairman... I'm just playing too much Sims...

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-03-23 03:37pm

Maybe they're commies?

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2005-03-23 03:39pm

Under their logic, couldn't you make the case for banning pretty much anything of value on campus, because they might be used as status symbols to make poorer students feel bad?

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2005-03-23 05:15pm

"That comment is so stupid that I can only attribute it to higher education."

I hate having this quote pop into my head so much.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2005-03-23 05:39pm

I don't understand. The students are paying someone else to clean their room. How is this different from paying a dry-cleaners to clean your tux?

This isn't bleeding heart, this is fucking Niagara Falls.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2005-03-23 08:50pm

Wait, would this only stop this kid, or stop maid services completely? Because if the latter, then you're denying kids a very, very needed useful service in some cases they have no legal right to deny, and if the former, then what's the difference if instead they just went somewhere else to find maids?...

I don't know...

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2005-03-23 09:46pm

I was one of the 'have nots' in college. I drove a 1981 Olds, had a small ass TV, no fancy clothes, didn't go on expensive ski trips, etc. And you know what, I took pride in the fact that could live off little. I saved my money, made it stretch as far as it could go, and four years later I graduated broke, but not in debt. If these spoiled, stuck up, lazy brats wanna have a maid, or wanna drive BMWs, have big screen plasmas, take expensive ski trips, etc then I say let them. It's their money, I don't give a shit.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-03-23 11:31pm

I suppose it would depend on what kind of students you want to graduate. Personally, if I was the dean and discovered that some of my students are so goddamned lazy that they can't even maintain a habitable dorm room without help from their parents, I'd want to kick them out of the school on that basis alone. What kind of adult is this lazy little shit going to turn into, and do I want him walking around with a degree that has my university's name printed on it?

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2005-03-23 11:54pm

I don't care if some kid with money hires a maid to clean his room.
When I was going to SJSU if I found out some other kid was paying to have his/her dorm room cleaned it would not hurt my self esteem. I might turn my nose up a bit at the spoiled rich kid, but the reality is 40-50 bucks once or twice a month is not going to make or break most students anyways. Let the kid run his business.

With that said, I think Wong has a fair point. The school can simply make it a rule that if you live in the dorms you contribute to the clean up and maintenance of the facility. If you don't participate yourself you get booted.
Either way I can't get worked up about this one.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2005-03-24 12:19am

TrailerParkJawa wrote:
With that said, I think Wong has a fair point. The school can simply make it a rule that if you live in the dorms you contribute to the clean up and maintenance of the facility. If you don't participate yourself you get booted.
Either way I can't get worked up about this one.

They don't already have this rule? How the fuck do they keep the dorms clean then?

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-03-24 12:20am

Cpl Kendall wrote:
TrailerParkJawa wrote:
With that said, I think Wong has a fair point. The school can simply make it a rule that if you live in the dorms you contribute to the clean up and maintenance of the facility. If you don't participate yourself you get booted.
Either way I can't get worked up about this one.
They don't already have this rule? How the fuck do they keep the dorms clean then?

With many they don't. It falls to the tenant's sense of responsibility.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-03-24 12:26am

How could anyone going to HARVARD be considered a "have-not"?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2005-03-24 12:33am

Darth Servo wrote:How could anyone going to HARVARD be considered a "have-not"?

A student with a full scholarship perhaps?

lazerus · Post by **lazerus** » 2005-03-24 02:25pm

neoolong wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:How could anyone going to HARVARD be considered a "have-not"?
A student with a full scholarship perhaps?

Because someone who's smart enough to get accepted to harvard on a scholarship is really lacking in life.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-03-24 02:56pm

Stravo wrote:Harvard has been mulling over banning this service after the Hardvard Crimson newspaper had a very vocal editorial about how this maid service is creating a perception that emphasizes the haves and have nots among the student body. They feel that the poorer students would have their self esteem hurt and that it might create rancor among the student body along class lines.

What happens when a student hires a maid to clean up a dorm room? Some lazy student with money to burn loses money, someone less wealthy gets money. It's progresive redistribution of wealth---the sort of thing you would expect to appeal to someone who is against "emphasizing the haves and have-nots".

That said, this is damn lazy. What sort of person can't spare 15 minutes periodically to keep a dorm room in habitable state? Dorm rooms are small, people! How hard can they be to keep livably clean?

Sam Or I · Post by **Sam Or I** » 2005-03-24 03:41pm

If they cannot afford a maid service, they can START ONE so they can afford it. Isn't this in theory what the American dream is about!!! Making an opportunity for yourself!!

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-03-24 05:13pm

Mm, my perception is probably influenced by having attended a private college founded by Quakers (Haverford) that taught the value of belonging to a single community of diverse members, which meant no fraternities, no organizations to divide the student body into cliques.

So from that standpoint ... clean your own god damned room, you lazy preppie pricks! Mama ain't here to do your homework, either.

Four years of belonging to a community of relative equals will be a good preparation for them to enter the 'real world,' because when they leave that undergrad coccoon and enter grad school or the business world, they're going to need every competitive, self-sufficient life skill they have if they want to excel.

Pick · Post by **Pick** » 2005-03-24 05:24pm

I think some people here are lacking a severe distinction.

Yes, they SHOULD clean their own rooms. They SHOULD not be horrible, horrible slobs. Do you know what else would be nice? World peace.

They hire maids so they don't have to deal with their own messy behavior. Is this a good thing? No, they should be self-sufficent in cleanliness' regards. But they aren't, and probably won't be. Yet you can't just take away all other options and say that's okay, either. And certainly not for stupid-assed reasons like a growing gap between haves and have nots. You don't have to like it, but there's really no good reason for taking it away, either.

Do I think it's pathetic they need this? Yes. Do I think they should clean their own shit? Yes. As a result of this, do I ban them from having someone else service their cleaning requirements? No.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-03-24 05:25pm

Pick wrote:I think some people here are lacking a severe distinction.

Yes, they SHOULD clean their own rooms. They SHOULD not be horrible, horrible slobs. Do you know what else would be nice? World peace.

They hire maids so they don't have to deal with their own messy behavior. Is this a good thing? No, they should be self-sufficent in cleanliness' regards. But they aren't, and probably won't be. Yet you can't just take away all other options and say that's okay, either. And certainly not for stupid-assed reasons like a growing gap between haves and have nots. You don't have to like it, but there's really no good reason for taking it away, either.

Do I think it's pathetic they need this? Yes. Do I think they should clean their own shit? Yes. As a result of this, do I ban them from having someone else service their cleaning requirements? No.

You seem to think that a university degree is a right. It is not. They can take it away for all kinds of reasons that wouldn't hold up in a civil-rights argument, and this is hardly an exception. If I'm a dean of a university, I know that every person walking around with one of my degrees reflects on my university. Anyone so goddamned lazy that he can't clean his dorm room is most likely a useless shit, and I don't want him running around carrying my university's name on him.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-03-24 05:29pm

Pick wrote:I think some people here are lacking a severe distinction.

Yes, they SHOULD clean their own rooms. They SHOULD not be horrible, horrible slobs. Do you know what else would be nice? World peace.

They hire maids so they don't have to deal with their own messy behavior. Is this a good thing? No, they should be self-sufficent in cleanliness' regards. But they aren't, and probably won't be. Yet you can't just take away all other options and say that's okay, either. And certainly not for stupid-assed reasons like a growing gap between haves and have nots. You don't have to like it, but there's really no good reason for taking it away, either.

Do I think it's pathetic they need this? Yes. Do I think they should clean their own shit? Yes. As a result of this, do I ban them from having someone else service their cleaning requirements? No.

Harvard is a private university ... they probably enforce an Honor Code that is quite a bit more stringent in the behavior requirements than anything in the 'public' world requires (my college certainly did).

A private college is meant to provide a specific type of educational experience, which THEY define ... not the state, not the fefderal govt., but the private institution. As such, if they want to require all students to wear pantaloons and sing the Venezuelan national anthem before every class, they can do it .... and they don't even NEED a good reason.

So if part of the student experience Harvard wants to provide is a more egalitarian student body, then that's their prerogative. The fact that I happen to think it's also a good idea is just a function of my having had a similar college experience and enjoying it.

(Although our place was a fucking pit since we did our own cleaning, I hasten to add ... college students are mostly pigs.)

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-03-24 05:31pm

Look at it from a different perspective ....

Do you think rich kids at the Air Force Academy or West Point are allowed to hire help to clean their rooms? Fat fucking chance.

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Maid Service in College = Class Warfare?

Maid Service in College = Class Warfare?

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