Quad packages to be processed in trailer

Quadrangle residents will have to walk a few steps farther to retrieve their packages now -- but Residential Living officials are promising that students will benefit from the change. In response to mail security concerns, the department has set up a 28-foot-long storage trailer outside the 37th Street entrance to the Quad. The trailer, which has acted as a partial distribution site since last Monday, will begin full package room service later this week, Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said. "The mail room is not large enough for package sorting in addition to mail functions," Simeone added. "It can now be handled in a space that's adequate." The new trailer, which is parked near the walkway leading to Stouffer College House, will cost the University $8,000 per year, with an added one-time outlay of $12,000 for electricity, Simeone said. There have been at least three reported instances of unattended packages in the Quad this semester. Simeone attributed one of them to the large number of packages that overflowed the mail room office. Residential Living officials have also said that the post office has occasionally delivered mail and packages after normal business hours, when no one is present to take care of them. And once, an employee left mail and packages in an open room for a few minutes while sorting mail elsewhere. Residential Services Manager Rodney Robinson said the new trailer should put a stop to these situations, since it will lessen the number of services the mail room provides. Simeone added that she hopes the trailer is a permanent solution to the problems brought on by the size of the Quad mail room. "It depends on what happens in the University as a whole," Simeone added, noting that if the University ever switched to a central mail system, the trailer would not be necessary. And Robinson said he would be interested in finding "some area within the building that's more permanent than just the trailer." College freshman Matt Huebner said he has never had a problem with package delivery in the mail room. "I think the system was fine in the mail room," Huebner said. "I could get everything done in one place that way." According to Robinson, two extra employees will staff the trailer. Residential Living ruled out the possibility of renovating the existing mail room or building a new one because it could have cost the University as much as $250,000. Mail continues to arrive at the University in damaged condition, Robinson confirmed, noting that since Saturday, approximately 10 damaged pieces of mail have arrived in University residences.