From late packages to sporadic deliveries, students have had much to complain about with Tufts' mail services over the years, and have never hesitated to voice their dissatisfaction. Now, in an effort to pacify disgruntled students, Tufts has begun delivering mail on Saturdays, and is proposing other improvements including e-mail notification when packages became available for pickup.
Mail will now be delivered to the dorms on Saturdays between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and the Hill Hall mailroom will be open from 1-3:45 p.m. This represents the biggest change in an ongoing attempt to improve mail services at Tufts.
"We realize that every student has a busy schedule and may not be able to find time to pick up their packages during the week," said Distribution Property Manager Sheila Chisholm of Mail Services. "Hopefully having the mailroom open on Saturday will enable busy students to come down to Hill Hall and receive their packages."
While many students simply bemoan Mail Services' problems, some, including freshman Tufts Community Union Senator Ed Schwemn, have worked to see their gripes addressed.
"There would be two or three days straight where the mail was delivered and then a week would pass by where no one got their mail," he said. Schwemn, Chisholm, and other members of the Tufts community are now working together to come up with solutions to the inconsistent mail service.
Aside from Saturday mail deliveries, mail services is also looking into obtaining equipment which would enable a package to be scanned upon arrival, and have an e-mail notification sent automatically to the recipient.
"Nothing is official yet," Chisholm stressed. "We really like this idea here at mail services, but the earliest that something like this might be implemented is next semester."
In order to fully understand how the proposals will affect the mail service at Tufts, it is important to understand the process of how the mail gets from the sender to the Tufts student.
Tufts mail is separated into bags by dorm at the US Post Office in Medford Square. The bags are then brought to Hill Hall, where they are sent to Tilton and Carmichael, the two collection centers. Finally, the student mail carriers are responsible for getting the mail from the collection centers into dorm mailboxes.
One of the largest problems mail services encounters is based on a difference in interpretation between the US Post Office and Tufts Mail Services. The post office considers large manila envelopes to be normal mail, but mail services considers these envelopes packages because they are too large for dorm mailboxes. These envelopes travel to the dorm, back to the collection center, and back to Hill Hall the next day where package slips are then filled out and sent in that evening's mail.
"So many different people and organizations handle the mail that it is impossible not to have some problems with the consistency of the delivery," Chisholm said. For instance, if an envelope is put in the wrong mail bag, it will automatically be a day late, as it has to go out to the mail carrier, who then sends it back to Hill.
Sometimes packages arrive at Hill Hall after the mailbags have left for the dorms. In these instances, the packages sit over night in the mailroom before their slips are sent out to the mailboxes the following afternoon.
Mail Services is also excited about its new facility in Hill Hall. Until this year, the mailroom was located in Hill for only the first month of school, because a large amount of packages arrive at the start of the school season. Traditionally, the mailroom was then moved to the basement of West Hall after the initial rush of packages settled down. Last year, however, the University constructed a permanent mailroom in Hill.
"The best part of the new mailroom is [that] we got to help design it," Chisholm said. "We were able to tell the designers what we needed and where it needed to be in order for the mailroom to function best."
Chisholm's favorite part of the mailroom is the extensive shelving and organization systems. "In the past, packages were just piled on tables, which often resulted in them being misplaced. Now, we have shelves and bins which help us keep things organized."
Since August, 13,466 packages have been sent to Tufts, and all but 550 have reached their final destination.
