The mailroom for the Medford/Somerville campus will be moving locations this fall to the current basement of the Tufts Bookstore, which inhabits part of the Mayer Campus Center. The mailroom is currently located on 389 Boston Ave. in the lower level of Hill Hall.
The decision for a location change primarily stems from the upcoming construction of a new dorm for upperclassmen on Boston Avenue. Work on the new building will block the loading dock to the current mailroom, making large deliveries to Hill Hall functionally impossible.
According to Boon Teo, manager of the Tufts Bookstore, the switch of locations has already begun.
“The discussion about relocating the mailroom has been ongoing for some time, but planning became more concrete in December,” Teo wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Renovations began in February, with the goal of completing the transition by mid-May.”
Nicholas Piscitello, senior director of auxiliary services at Tufts, elaborated on the schedule.
“We are in the process of finalizing a few details with the post office, and we anticipate making an official announcement in early April,” Piscitello wrote in an email to the Daily.
Part of the renovation includes redesigning the existing loading dock in the Campus Center.
“The existing loading dock will be redone and shared between the bookstore and mailroom,” Teo said. “This upgrade will help streamline deliveries, improve efficiency and enhance overall operations for both services.”
Piscetello added that he and his team are “taking all necessary steps to ensure that the transition causes minimal disruption to the campus.”
Teo echoed this idea. In her email, she wrote “there may be some construction-related noise and activity over the next few weeks, but we’re making every effort to minimize disruptions.”
In order to accommodate the mail room in the basement, the bookstore will be consolidating its textbook section to its main floor. According to Piscetello, the changes to the bookstore will have “minimal impact” on the store due to current student preferences.
“The bookstore was originally designed in the 1990s, when most students purchased paper-back books,” he wrote. “With the increase in digital content and third-party retailers, this was an opportunity to right-size the textbook section of the bookstore.”
Piscetello explained that part of the project’s goal is to alleviate grievances about the current mailroom’s distance from downhill residences.
“The current mailroom’s location and its proximity to the existing residence hall were factors in the decision-making,” he wrote. “The new location in the basement of the campus store will be more central to many of the residence halls on campus.”
Teo added that the new location will increase convenience in other ways, for “having the mailroom and bookstore in one location makes it easier to pick up packages, textbooks, and other essentials in a single stop.”
Piscetello could not confirm what will become of the space for the old mail room location in Hill Hall.
A new mailroom is not the only anticipated change for Hill Hall in the upcoming school year. The first-year residence hall will be converted to sophomore housing in place of Wren Hall due to high enrollment in the class of 2029.
Additionally, in an email sent by Tufts Office of Residential Life & Learning on Feb. 11, first-years were alerted of likely upcoming noise in Hill Hall and the Hillside Apartments resulting from the Boston Avenue construction.
Khalid Alissa, a first-year at Tufts who currently resides in Hill Hall, said he will likely miss his convenience to the mailroom, assuming he lives in a different dorm next year.
“I mean, it’s a huge plus to be living right on top of [the mail room], so I don’t have to deal with walking uphill with my hands full of packages,” he said. “But it’s obviously going to change.”
Nevertheless, Alissa believed the new location benefits Hill Hall residents and the university overall.
“I think it would be an overall positive for everyone on campus,” Alissa said. “I have noticed that there’s a lot of through traffic of people cutting through the building to try and get to the mailroom and that can get in the way a bit, so moving the mailroom to a dedicated place that isn’t really going to mix the foot traffic with a residential building would be nice.”
