Located in a small storefront on the edge of campus beside the Brown and Brew café in Curtis Hall, Tufts' United States Postal Service (USPS) branch remains unnoticed by many — but those who do frequent the branch may soon be looking for a new place to buy stamps.
USPS in January announced a cost−cutting program that would shut down as many as 2,000 post offices after the institution lost nearly $8.5 billion over the course of the 2010 fiscal year.
USPS will additionally review 16,000 underperforming branches across the country. Since current laws prohibit the closure of post offices with mail processing systems and carriers, the first post offices to be targeted will be those that use leased space and do not employ mail carriers.
Tufts' post office, included on an initial list of Postal Service branches to be identified for full review, could be in as much peril as its rural and underused counterparts. And the threat is hardly new — the branch in 2009 was listed as one of nine Boston metropolitan area post offices in immediate danger.
Support Services Manager Sheila Chisholm said she contacted a USPS official upon the discovery of potential branch closure and learned that the online list was unofficial.
Chisholm noted the distinction between Tufts Mail Services and the USPS branch, which is not affiliated with Tufts and is named solely for its proximity to the university.
"Mail Services is not in danger of being closed down," Chisholm said. "Tufts University and Tufts' Post Office are absolutely independent of each other."
USPS Greater Boston Discontinuance Coordinator Dennis Tarmey said there is no active proposal to close the Tufts University Post Office at this time. He did, however, note that the future remains uncertain.
"All options are ‘on the table' when it comes to addressing the future of the Postal Service, but at the present time the Tufts' Post Office located on Boston Avenue remains open," Tarmey told the Daily in an e−mail.
He also assured students that if the situation changes in the future, all options will be considered carefully and the community's opinion will not be ignored.
"If a proposal is brought forth sometime in the future that calls for the possible discontinuance of this postal outlet, the Tufts University community will be advised and the Postal Service would seek community input prior to taking any formal action to close the post office," Tarmey said.
In the event of the branch's closure, customers face the option of taking their business to the West Medford Post Office, the West Somerville Post Office or the Medford Post Office, all of which are located over a mile from campus.
Many of the planned closings are in rural and small urban areas, according to a Jan. 24 Wall Street Journal article.
Freshman Faith Wilson comes from such a place. Wilson hails from East Charleston, Vt., a town of 800 residents in which the post office, along with the church and the general store, constitutes the town's heart and marks a gathering place for the community.
"When people check their P.O. Boxes every day, the post office becomes a place for them to see each other," Wilson said.
In East Charleston, it is not uncommon for the elderly in town to leave their house only once every day to go to the post office, Wilson said.
"Taking away this service from them would be cruel," she said. "It would become even more difficult for these elderly people to keep up with what is happening."
Wilson doesn't understand why USPS wants to shut down the individual post offices in rural areas, citing what she claims to be an overabundance of offices in urban settings.
"You don't really need a post office on every corner in the city," she said. "They should close down a few of those instead of targeting small communities, which actually count on the mail to stay connected."
