Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor … delivery people?
Mail recently went undelivered in Lewis Hall for about two weeks because a student delivery person failed to sort mail upon its arrival in the downhill dormitory, leaving dozens of students waiting for letters.
Around the same time — during the last week of October and the first week of November — another Mail Services student employee delivered the mail sporadically in South Hall, causing letters, bills, financial statements and other correspondence to show up late.
In Lewis Hall, two students said that at one point they saw a pile of mail on a shelf by the dormitory's student mailboxes. Financial statements and letters were left out in the open.
Mail Services became aware of the undelivered post in Lewis Hall after its non-student employees, who deliver the mail to a locked area in the dormitory six days a week for the student delivery people to then sort into individual mailboxes, noticed that mail was piling up in that locked area, according to Ron Drauschke, the supervisor of Mail Services. Reports from students living in the dorm also tipped Mail Services off to the problem.
"A couple of residents voiced concerns," Drauschke said.
Drauschke estimated the problem lasted between a week and two weeks in Lewis. Residents put the length of time closer to two weeks. Mail delivery in Lewis Hall resumed on Nov. 6.
Rachel Friedman, a sophomore who lives in Lewis Hall, said she regularly opened her mailbox looking for a check her father had sent her in October. Her father had sent a check at the same time to her sister at Cornell University and her sister had already received it by November.
Friedman grew concerned when her check didn't arrive, and she reported the mail problem to her residential director during the first week of November.
Sophomore Quentin Lott, another Lewis resident, had similar problems during the same time period. He was looking through his mailbox every day for a check from his mother when mail stopped showing up in his dormitory. Lott lives in a triple and he said neither of his roommates received the bank statements and birthday cards they were waiting for until well into November.
One night during the first week of November, Lott noticed "a ton of mail" — at least 50 envelopes, he said — sitting on a shelf by the mailboxes.
"I was just surprised," Lott said. "I didn't know why it was just dumped there."
Friedman also noticed the pile and was worried that her check could have been stolen.
"I was expecting a check in the mail, and it was a problem if it was on the shelf and somebody took it or it was lost," Friedman said. She has since received the check.
Mail Services terminated and has since replaced the Lewis Hall delivery person, who was also responsible for mail delays in Bush and Haskell Halls, Drauschke said.
"There was a problem, and it's been corrected," said Support Services Manager Sheila Chisholm, who added that the Lewis Hall delivery person had not provided a good reason for his behavior.
A similar scenario occurred in South Hall, according to reports from residents.
South Hall resident Kristin Bradley, a freshman, said that she and her friends had been waiting for two bank statements and a card at the end of October, but that nothing had turned up.
One day, though, "it all came at once," Bradley said. She added that she was not sure how sporadic mail delivery was in her dormitory because she and her friends did not check their mail frequently.
The South Hall mail delivery person was not fired and "assures us that she'll be doing her job," Drauschke said.
Drauschke said early this week that Mail Services had not heard about the stack of correspondence left in a Lewis common area in which Friedman said she found her mail.
Student mail delivery people are supposed to sort the mail into residents' mailboxes between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, a process that takes anywhere from less than half an hour in smaller dorms to more than an hour in larger dorms, according to Evan Chasan, a junior who sorts mail in West, Wren and Houston Halls throughout the week.
Mail must always remain locked up, Chasan said.
"The sorters aren't supposed to leave mail unattended," he said. "Either it goes in the person's mailbox or it goes in an ‘undeliverable' mailbag that mail services will pick up the next day."
"We're not supposed to ever leave mail out in the open," Chasan added.
About 15 student delivery people sort the mail in on-campus dormitories. Drauschke said that Mail Services had never seen a problem like this before.
