For the second time in two years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is threatening to close its Tufts branch.
The proliferation of electronic media has led to rapidly declining revenues for post office branches nationwide over the last several years, so we are sympathetic to USPS's need to cut costs. Still, we believe the agency has too little to gain by closing the campus branch to justify the inconvenience it would pose to the community.
The first time USPS considered closing the campus post office, in the fall of 2009, the campus branch was still profitable. This no doubt contributed to USPS's decision then to leave the branch open, as it recorded a net loss nationwide of $297 million in the last three months of 2009. Closing a branch that turns a profit made little sense then, and it makes little sense now.
More recent financial data on the Tufts branch will not be available until next month, but it seems unlikely that the outlook could have worsened enough in that time to warrant its closure — especially when one considers that the university continues to charge USPS only $1 per year for rent.
In the event that the campus branch has joined hundreds of other branches nationwide in posting losses, its closure would be disproportionately inconvenient compared to the potential closure of other post office branches nationwide.
The three nearest branches — one in Davis Square, one in Medford and one in West Medford — are each a mile or more from campus. Most Tufts students don't have cars on campus, and there is limited public transportation to the three nearby branches. This poses a greater inconvenience than, say, closing post offices in Boston, where branches are much closer together and public transportation between them more accessible.
Many nearby Medford and Somerville residents benefit as well from having easy access to the campus post office. Like Tufts students, many local residents do not own cars, and having to travel over a mile to mail packages could pose a frequent inconvenience, particularly for the elderly, for whom such a trip might be arduous.
USPS officials will likely solicit community input over the next few months on the potential impact of the closure. When they do, we urge you to tell them that the costs of closing the campus branch would outweigh the gains.
--
Correction: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that Tufts charges the USPS $1 per month for rent. In fact, the university charges the USPS $1 per year.
