Dear Students,

I write to tell you about several changes to student fees at the College. Currently, many student-led activities are funded through a mixture of fees, including surplus revenues from laundry machines and from the optional Student Activities Fee (SAF). Each year, an increasing number of students opt out of paying the activities fee, which puts increased budgetary pressure on student groups and house committees and leads to necessary changes like increasing laundry fees. Harvard College students collectively spent more than $500,000 on laundry last year.

In an attempt to be more transparent about costs at the College, we will eliminate all laundry machine fees effective January 1, 2026. To finance this change and ensure sufficient funding for student activities, we intend to make the Student Activities Fee mandatory and increase the fee to $450, effective next academic year. We will work to ensure that this change does not materially increase costs for students receiving financial aid. 
 
For the spring semester, your laundry is on us. Next year and for the future, the costs of maintaining and running the laundry machines will be taken from the increased revenue in the Student Activities Fee. 100% of the increase in the Student Activities Fee will be passed on directly to students in the form of increased funding for house committees and student organizations. 
 
I believe this change will streamline College student costs, provide a fairer and more sustainable funding source for student activities, and lead to a better overall student experience. 
 
All my best,
David

David J. Deming
Danoff Dean of Harvard College