Mailroom Makeover
New lockers and a wider mailroom window replace the campus mailboxes area this year (Photo by Maddie Neiman/The Gettysburgian)
By Maddie Neiman, Features Editor
Among the many changes accompanying the College Union Building’s construction, the mailroom and its system of operations will function with a few major differences beginning this fall semester.
Most visibly, the area where students could open their own mailboxes has vanished and been replaced by a much larger window, where students will need to approach and receive assistance from a mailroom employee.
One advantage of the remodeled space, according to mailroom supervisor Robin Bennett, is that there is much more space for employees to organize mail, including a fully-covered unloading dock where mail and packages can be delivered to the college and kept safe from rain or snow.
Although individual mailboxes no longer exist, students will have their own campus folders in the mailroom and should continue to know and use their campus box number for their college mailing address. Without using the campus box number, the mail cannot be sorted as efficiently.
Now, not only will students receive email alerts for packages, but they will also receive alerts for letters, postcards, and other mail. The email will state whether a student has received a package or another type of mail.
If the email is for non-package mail, students will need to tell the mailroom employee that they received an email for a letter (or such) because the Student ID-scanners will only identify packages. Students should also be prepared to tell their campus box number to the employee.
Lockers for certain packages are still accessible and located outside of the mailroom window. The mailroom now offers 80 lockers — an increase from the 54 that were there previously.
Instead of receiving a key for a locker, students will find a code in the email alerting them that their package is in a locker. These new code lockers function similar to a motel safe, according to Bennett.
The locker option is especially helpful for students who order express or overnight mail because they can pick up their packages from the lockers anytime during CUB hours. Otherwise, students can pick up standard-delivery packages from the mailroom during its open hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The mailroom is not open at all on Sundays.
Finally, students will still be able to buy stamps and send mail out from the mailroom, but the mailroom is no longer a USPS contract station, which means it cannot provide all of the USPS postal products and services that it could in the past.
