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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, August 14, 2025

Improvements expected to Mail Services

Mail Services has undergone a number of changes since the beginning of the year, and more improvements are expected for the future. Among options being considered for next year is an online system to notify students when their packages arrive.

Mail services personnel agree that the consolidation of the department in Hill Hall last fall improved the department's services. Now that Mail Services is no longer split between Hill and West halls, it has more space and is operating with greater efficiency.

"In West, there was no room for us to stack packages on shelves, and the waiting area was always so cramped," said Sheila Chisholm, distribution property manager of Mail Services.

Previously, Hill Hall was only used for summer deliveries, and West Hall handled deliveries during the academic year.

Mail Services Supervisor Ron Drauschke said the move made delivery and pickup of packages easier. "In West, Fed Ex, UPS, and the Postal Service would always deliver at different times... sometimes there would be a car in the way, and they would just say, 'catch you tomorrow,'" Drauschke said.

Now that the services are in Hill Hall, delivery of mail and packages from these companies has been more regular, in part because the parking lot in Hill is less crowded and there is a large loading dock.

Mail Services also began operating on Saturdays this year to give busy students an extra day to claim their packages. "While we've had less people show up on Saturdays than expected, those people who do come seem to really appreciate it," Chisholm said.

To operate the mail room on Saturdays, Mail Services had to hire additional students to hand out packages, and reduced regular staff to one.

Mail Services hopes to implement online package notification by the beginning of next year. When packages are delivered to the mail room, they will be automatically scanned according to their tracking number. Then, once the bar code scanner is linked to a computer, the package notification will be sent to the individual's e-mail account.

The goal is to provide more efficient package notification and greater individual attention, and students are looking forward to the service. "It's the smartest thing that has come out of Mail Services," sophomore Mihran Yenikomshian said.

Although students often complain about untimely mail and package delivery, Mail Services does not think there are major problems

"Just because you send something priority mail, doesn't mean it's going to get here in two days," Drauschke said, citing one example where a package took 28 days to arrive from Maryland because of a long layover in Colorado.

Sometimes, however, deliveries are delayed because of problems in dorm delivery that Mail Services is unaware of. Students are hired to sort the mail in each of their dormitories, and Mail Services trusts them to do the job in a timely manner. Mail Services will be working to remedy these problems in the fall, and will try to increase contact between the department, proctors, and the student distributors.

While many students find Saturday delivery and package pick-up convenient, not all say that there have been noticeable improvements in Mail Service.

"Saturday delivery? It never happens, so what's the difference?" freshman Samantha Resnik said

The move to Hill was "annoying, because now you have to walk up the steep hill from Hill Hall on the way back from picking up your package. Hill just seems so far away," sophomore Kamil Hussain said.