Though students have reported long waiting lines at both the J. Walter Wilson and Graduate Center package pickup stations this fall, Mail Services administrators said it is difficult to gauge whether the package wait-time is longer than in years past.
Between the last week of August and the end of September, 30,419 packages arrived on campus, said Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president of financial and administrative services. In the first week of October, 3,700 packages were delivered.
Due to the large number of packages that arrive at the start of fall semester, Mail Services usually operates package pickup stations at both J. Walter Wilson and the Graduate Center, Gentry said.
Fred Yattaw, manager of Mail Services, said a staff member manually emails students in groups of 25 to alert them that packages have arrived. The University uses this manual system in an attempt to stagger when students will pick up their packages to minimize wait times.
But several students expressed frustration with the long waiting times for packages. Many students reported waiting up to an hour toward the beginning of the semester, with shorter waiting times around 20 minutes.
A few students also reported not receiving emails notifying them their packages had arrived.
Abby Malone ’16 said she did not receive an email, and waited at Grad Center to see if her package had arrived after the date she thought it would arrive had passed. Though Mail Services had not notified her, the package was at Grad Center and labeled with her mailbox number, she said.
Gentry and Yattaw said all students receive emails when their packages arrive on campus.
Gentry said she has requested a new space for Mail Services that is “more suitable, more central for everybody.” She added that a new and larger space would make it “easier for both the Mail Services staff to handle all of the packages but also (make) it easier for students,” so that they would not have to carry packages across campus.
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