News

New mailboxes to assist mail services

Freshman Brandon Walker unsuccessfully attempts to open a new mailbox, but, like many students, he discovered that they will not be in use for at least a couple of weeks. / photo by Rosie Sinapi
Freshman Brandon Walker unsuccessfully attempts to open a new mailbox, but, like many students, he discovered that they will not be in use for at least a couple of weeks. / photo by Rosie Sinapi

by Heather Morales
Editorial Assistant

A new auxiliary mailroom with student mailboxes has been built in the Student Center to meet the needs of the growing University community.

The construction on new mailboxes began in August and will be completed and ready for student use by next week.

According to Brian Worley, director of facilities management, “They should be painting by the end of this week.”

Ruby Cordova, associate dean of student affairs, who has been trying to get funding for new mailboxes for years, finally got approval last year but did not know where to put them.

“Our biggest problem was space,” said Cordova.

The go-ahead for construction came in late June when the Art Department moved out of the Student Center, and the mailboxes were built in part of the vacated space.

The use of the remainder of the space left by the Art Department and the space occupied by the old mailboxes will be decided by a University appropriations committee.

The old boxes will be taken out and be re-conditioned by the company that sold them to the University and they will be sold to someone else.

There is a total of 1,268 new mailboxes, compared to the 1,046 old boxes.

With the old boxes, there was a problem of allocation, since there were not enough to accommodate every student. Now, there will be enough so that students will no longer have to share a box.

All returning students will have the same box numbers and new students will receive new box numbers.

Problems with the old boxes were that they were over 20 years old and front loading, while the doors were too heavy for the hinges and the locks.

“There were more problems than just the maintenance of the old boxes,” said Cordova.

Along with the broken hinges and locks, students had to share boxes and the combinations on many boxes would stick so students had trouble opening their mailboxes and getting their mail.

Also, the boxes were too small for the capacity of mail that some students were receiving.

“Students are getting more mail now than ever before,” said Cordova.

“We’ll be able to keep the mail contained while it’s being sorted and it will be back-loaded into these boxes,” said Worley. “It will be a secure place.”

The new boxes are located in the back of the Student Center near the Student Center classroom.

Most workers at the Student Center desk will not be handling the mail any longer. Instead, other Student Center workers will be working in the mailroom from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays.

While the old mailboxes have combination locks, the new ones will have keyed locks and the keys will be checked out to students.

“We haven’t worked out the system totally, but everyone will be required to put down a deposit,” said Melissa Jaunal, coordinator of student programs.

The $20 refundable deposit will have to be paid when students gets their new mailboxes.

The new mailroom will not handle packages. Students will still have to go to the campus Mailroom to get their packages that do not fit into their boxes.

Cordova hopes that, eventually, students will be able to use this auxiliary mailroom to send out mail and packages.

Heather Morales, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Heather Morales
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Rosie Sinapi, Editor in Chief
Rosie Sinapi
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