The Student Government Association (SGA) has been widely criticized across campus for, amongst other things, largely ignoring many of the issues that are pertinent to the bulk of the student body. The focus of the SGA, which has centered around affairs like the Jason Vassell case and the divestment from Israel, has struggled coincide with the affairs and interests of most students.

However, on April 8 the SGA showcased its intention to make a major difference for students when it was announced that dorms at the University of Massachusetts will be receiving new washers and dryers next year.

At first glance, this seems like a minor motion that hardly deserves mention. But, like so many other things as UMass, laundry is an oft-malfunctioning, overcrowded system that frustrates students to the point that Facebook groups are made because of it.

Many students have complained about the faulty system at UMass.

Instead of installing their own appliances, the school is in a contract with Automatic Laundry, a 10-year agreement that is wrapping up at the end of the semester. Due to this contract, though, students can’t approach the school with their laundry issues. Rather, they must approach the company themselves. Students are left to either make do with washing machines that frequently flood and dryers that don’t dry even after they have been repaired by a technician, or seek off-campus facilities.

So, just as the inefficiency of the laundry system was just becoming another facet of life in the dorms, it was the SGA that came in on a white horse to lead the students to magical land where you only have to put your clothes through the dryer once.

At the SGA meeting last Wednesday, it was announced that the deal with Automatic Laundry was expiring and that the school would be looking for a new company to sign with.

Oh, happy day.

The SGA has been the butt of many a joke here at UMass, including the one that accuses the members of doing nothing but eat pizza at meetings. No one’s laughing now, though, as the SGA showed that they are, in fact, motivated to do the one thing that most people want them to do: address and fix the most pressing problems of the student body.

This isn’t about Student Bridges. This isn’t about transparency. It’s about there being a problem and the SGA showing initiative to do something about it. The SGA has over $2 million in its budget and people constantly ask what exactly they do with it. For once, it appears it’s going to something everyone can agree on.

Unless there’s someone that brought a dryer from home and charges his friends a buck to use it, there aren’t many people that should take issue with this. Unfortunately, this is something that rarely happens for the governing body of UMass students. Instead, the SGA has a habit of getting locked up in affairs that are really only important to the SGA.

It doesn’t take much to see it, just look at this year’s results for the SGA elections. SGA President Ngozi Mbawuike got 1,687 students to vote for her, out of a pool of approximately 18,234. That’s not a whole lot of give-a-crap for who runs the SGA. Election fail.

Not many people can say exactly what it is that the SGA does. It just sort of does its thing until the spring when someone knocks on your door saying that this new candidate is going to fight for the students.

It happened when Malcolm Chu ran. There aren’t many things you really put a finger on what he changed for the students. It happened again when Mbawuike ran and we’re getting new dryers less than a dozen days after she took office. See the difference?

That’s not to say Mbawuike’s going to be the champion for the students (or maybe she will, it hasn’t even been two weeks). What it does say, though, is that there is at least one instance where the students were pissed off about something and the SGA came in and said, ‘Hey, we’ll fix it.’ That’s a comforting thing.

The issue of laundry was one of the most intriguing points on the Chris Faulker-Josh Davidson ticket when they ran for office. They lost, yet their efforts are proving to make a difference.

Wait, the SGA is taking a cue from the losing party and is coming together to address a campus-wide issue? The SGA is actually doing the sort of things Barack Obama said he’d do.

It would’ve been all too easy for the SGA to pass over the issue and simply renew the contract with Automatic Laundry. Instead, the issue was looked into and the SGA saw that the company offered terrible customer service and neglected to replace malfunctioning machines in a timely manner.

It’s stuff like this that gets people to get interested in the SGA and gets them to vote. Now, if they can just Wi-Fi in the dorms.

Nick O’Malley is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].