Nicholas Progasic: The Force Behind the Mailroom
By Sarah Laud, Staff Writer
Photo by Maddie Neiman, The Gettysburgian
To Nicholas Progasic, the supervisor of the Gettysburg College mailroom, every package matters.
Every day, Gettysburg students make trips to the mailroom to collect packages. The mailroom is a key component to the many moving parts that make a student’s experience at college run smoothly. Forgot your hairbrush at home? Missing your favorite game-day socks? Didn’t order your biology textbook yet? Students can count on the mailroom to help facilitate them getting what they need
Progasic stands before the counter at the Gettysburg College Mailroom, awaiting students eager to get their packages and miscellaneous letters. He is the full-time supervisor, overseeing employees and organizing any and all tasks pertaining to the mailroom.
Progasic has been the supervisor for thirteen months, and for the past five years he has also been involved with Ricoh Printing Services at the college.
On campus, the mailroom accepts almost all shipping services.
“We got all of it,” said Progasic. “USPS, UPS, DHL, Amazon Prime. The mailroom gets between 500 and 800 packages delivered a day.”
Progasic notes that the mailroom occasionally gets strange deliveries. He’s seen the equipment for biology labs and gag gifts, but some students even order caterpillars to grow butterflies in their dorm rooms.
The busiest time of year in the mailroom is always the beginning of the semester and Halloween Weekend.
“‘Halloweekend’ requires multiple outfits, most likely ordered last minute, where the students depend on the mailroom to get those costumes into their hands before the festivities begin,” said Progasic.
Progasic explained how important it is for him to go through each individual package to make sure it is labeled properly and gets in the hands of the student on the receiving end.
“When you take over this position, the students view the mailroom as a communication to the outside. When packages go missing, getting that package to that one student matters,” said Prosagic. Indeed, a package, letter from home, or a postcard can very well be a moral booster.
Prosagic notes that, due to the pandemic, there has been an increase in student use of the mailroom. COVID in general made and continues to make shipping more difficult on a national scale. Internationally, shipping has become quite a daunting task. Prosagic explains that, in order to send something internationally, you have to list the specific ingredients of the items in whatever package you are sending. During COVID, students started sending out a lot more letters to relatives, family, and friends. Not to mention, there was a flow of care packages sent from students’ homes.
“It is my job to get those items that mean a lot to the students into their hands at the end of the day,” said Progasic. “Mail is no longer just mail.”
To Progasic, working at Gettysburg is special. He loves the dynamics of the atmosphere, specifically the people he works with and seeing the students everyday. His favorite part of the job is making connections with students.
“I see the same students for their four years here…it’s almost a requirement for me to get to know them, even if it is just their name,” said Progasic. Progasic notes that he loves to see how successful Gettysburg students become and feels proud to be a small component to their success.
