With service cuts being debated for the U.S. Postal Service, the UA’s Residence Life anticipates more mail for students on Mondays.
U.S. Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe sent a warning to Congress in September stating the USPS will face bankruptcy if nothing changes. Some of the modifications suggested to help with this issue include the elimination of Saturday post.
If this change goes into effect, Manzanita-Mojave Residence Hall Desk Manager Armando Osete, a junior studying political science and pre-law, said he thinks sorting mail on Monday mornings will be more of a task for him and rest of his employees.
“It’s not only affecting the resident but it is affecting us too because it is going to be a way bigger workload,” Osete said. “If you see our mail rooms when we come back from winter break we will have at least five to six mail buckets full of letters and packages. There are 400 to 500 residents you have to sort out for.”
Osete also said that he sees a large majority of the residents check their mail on a daily basis as it is the first time for a lot of them participating in the service.
“When they used to live back at home they would expect their parents to get the mail,” Osete said. “But now they actually get to partake in the action and go and visit their boxes at least once a day.”
Chantoll Forrest, a resident of Manzanita-Mojave and pre-nursing freshman, said waiting on postal items like textbooks and school supplies might interfere with the learning process.
“If I needed to get something on a Saturday, that would be an issue,” Forrest said. “I know employees need to send and receive things all the time and I would like also like send things back home for birthdays and other things like that.”
The Student Union Post Office Contract Unit, located in the Student Union Memorial Center, would face less of a drawback to the Saturday post-halt as they are not open that day on a regular basis.
“I can’t really see there being a big change to the way we handle the mail here on campus just because students already know we are closed that day,” said Sean Oneil, the mail clerk for the location.
Some students who typically use the mail service at the studetn union are not worried about the facility being closed.
“I don’t think the post office being closed on Saturday is going to affect me,” said Rebecca Luiten, a biochemistry junior. “I send my mail out early enough and use the one here at the student union because it is convenient.”
