Rain, sleet, snow stop mail service

Though rain, snow and sleet may not stop the United States Postal Service, it has kept Residential Living mailroom workers from distributing mail to students living on-campus over the last week. Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said yesterday that mail was not delivered to students three days last week. Simeone said last night mail was not distributed last Monday because of Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday. And because school was cancelled on Thursday and Friday, mail was not delivered once again. Simeone said mailroom workers are not considered "essential personnel" under University policy, and therefore are not required to report to work when the University is closed. Even though the University was open Saturday, many students reported seeing stacks of mail waiting to be sorted and no workers in sight to sort them. College junior Jason Straus said he went to check for a package in the Quadrangle mailroom Saturday . When he looked into the mailroom he noticed that packages were stacked "ceiling high." Andrew Kluter, an Engineering junior, echoed Straus' sentiments, saying that when he went to check for a package in the Quad mailroom, he found nobody there. "The lights were on in the [Quad] mailroom and packages were up to the ceiling," Kluter said. Before returning to his Ware College House room empty-handed, he said he saw a worker from the main Quad desk enter the room with more packages. She put them down, shut the lights off, locked the door and left, he said. According to Simeone, mail was "done everywhere on Saturday but High Rise North." She said Residential Living was short-staffed this weekend, adding that this made mail distribution very difficult. Other students had complaints about general mail delivery. Damaged mail and packages not received were among the problems reported by students since returning to school after winter break. College senior Judith Friedman said job and law school information, which she knows has been sent, has not yet arrived. She said she did not receive any mail last week. "I still haven't gotten something that was mailed two weeks ago," Friedman said. Simeone said she does not know whether or not the Postal Service delivered mail to the University on Thursday and Friday. Even if they did, she said, University Mail Service might not have been able to deliver it to individual residences. Joshua Rappoport, an Engineering freshman, said his complaints with the mail service cannot be attributed to the weather. He said he has been very displeased with mail delivery in general at the University. "Quite frankly, I'm really pissed off," he said. Rappoport said his parents sent him prescription medication by overnight mail on Friday, January 14. His family called the Postal Service and was told that the medication was delivered to the Quad on Saturday, Jan. 15, he said. By Tuesday, Rappoport still did not have his medication. He said when he went to the Quad package room on Tuesday to find the package, a worker told him he had to wait until he received a package slip before being able to retrieve his medication. After arguing with the worker, Rappoport finally got his package, he said, adding that he had to open it in front of the worker before being able to take it. Rappoport finally received a package slip the next day, he said. Simeone said if emergency packages are sent to students, they should speak to their residential advisors and not directly confront mailroom workers.