Deliver mail on time, keep MC post office

GW has one of the worst track records in the mail delivery category. Despite a year of near misses with packages and an instance of not getting plane tickets until three hours before take-off, a letter this year has finally made me realize that the mail system cannot continue as it exists.

My mother mailed me a letter weeks ago, Sept. 10 to be exact, but I did not receive it until Sept. 24. There is no reason why any piece of mail, especially a letter, should take two full weeks to go from New Jersey to my mailbox. We students are under too much stress to deal with small irritations like this. This letter was not important, but what if it had been medicine?

After two full years of complaining, my friends have suggested that I just get a mailbox at the post office. I refuse to do so for two major reasons.

First, we pay too much to go to this school to have to spend more for another mailbox. Second, the school, in its infinite wisdom, feels that because the mailboxes are not rented, the post office is useless.

All they have to do is walk through the Marvin Center on any weekday to see that the post office is vital. Students use this to mail packages and buy stamps with our debit dollars. We should not be forced to walk to the Watergate just to buy stamps or mail packages. Not that the walk is too far, but it is inconvenient. Having stamps and a mailbox at Provisions will only cause longer lines at the already cramped store, and the thought of standing in any line at the bookstore makes any student cringe. Moreover, there is no need for a beauty supply store or another convenience store.

Not that the GW officials listened to our original plea to repair the mail system. They make us pay for our packages, and we have to walk blocks out of our way to get them. Someone should have mentioned that we were not complaining about packages. Packages were the only mail that usually arrived in a timely fashion. Now, the packages are delayed at least two extra days.

Solutions present themselves in any number of ways. First, the U.S. mail service could just put the mail into our mailboxes. The buildings used to be apartments, and the U.S. mail used to deliver to people living in the buildings. They should be able to do that now.

Second, the school could hire people to work in the residence hall offices full time. They would be in charge of separating and delivering the mail and getting people their packages, as well as lockouts and the like. Now, the hall offices are little more than building storage with someone to watch it. These solutions are far from the only ones, but perhaps they can help for now, while a more permanent solution is worked out.

The mail system is not beyond hope, but the more we sit by, the worse it gets. The kinks in the system need to be addressed. By showing that they are listening to our concerns, the administration will make leaps in student-university relations that could have ramifications far beyond the mail system. More importantly, it will get us our mail.

-Taylor Rhodes

Mail service should be accountable

Let’s face it – GW Mail Services has never had a stellar rating in my book. Last year, despite numerous complaints, the lock on my mailbox remained broken for the entire spring semester. Numerous letters, including those with money inside, have gone missing. Now Mail Services has given me a whole new reason to count down the days until I graduate and get to use professional mail delivery again.

I recently received an e-mail from a professional organization that I became involved with this summer. Apparently all the mail that they had sent me over the past month had been returned and they wanted to confirm my contact information. The information they had was correct, so I checked to see when the mailing had been sent. The last mailing had, in fact, been postmarked Sept. 13, well enough into the semester that Mail Services would know where I was living. But apparently Mail Services did not know, since this mailing, as with others, was returned with a big sticker marked “moved left no forwarding address.” Last time I checked, I have not moved and my address is still New Hall.

When I called Mail Services to check in on the situation, I was handled by several individuals who did not know and did not care about the problem. I was forwarded back and forth between irrelevant departments before being placed on hold for several minutes while someone rummaged through my mail. And when I say hold, I don’t mean I got to listen to Capital Jazz for a few minutes – I mean someone just put the phone down on the desk so that I could hear all the goings on of the office. Obviously, professionalism reigns supreme at Mail Services.

Finally, I was told that the mail was probably sent back because Mail Services did not have the completed resident directory at the time. I questioned this considering that by Sept. 13, I’d been living on campus for over three weeks. The employee said he did not know what the problem was since they did, at that point, have the updated directory. When I asked what was going to be done about the situation, the employee could not respond. He offered to tell his supervisor, who wasn’t there, but considering Mail Services’ track record, how much can I trust that this guy would even remember my name?

When will something be done about the atrocious nature of this so-called “service?” Mail Services has become an entity unto themselves, separate from the University departments that could ensure accountability for such problems. I long for the good old days when I could pickup my mail in the hall office, knowing who had sorted it and trusting them to do it right. Now I just count down the days until Commencement, not because I long for the freedom of the real world but because I long for freedom from the stupidity of Mail Services.

-Devon Tutak