UCLA looks to consolidate mail rooms on the Hill for next school year
2.7.mailboxes
By Antonio Gonzalez
Feb. 7, 2012 1:32 a.m.
UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services is looking to consolidate all mail rooms on the Hill into one centralized location for the next school year.
The shift will also provide extra mailboxes for the newly built residential halls Holly Ridge, Gardenia Way, Sproul Cove and Sproul Landing, said Steve Dundish, Rooms Division’s east area manager of Housing and Hospitality Services.
Specifics for the program have not been discussed. But officials say consolidation of the mail rooms will allow for a more efficient operating system and will make it easier for postal and package delivery services to deliver mail. Mail workers currently deliver mail to a number of locations around the Hill.
“Centralization makes anything easier,” Dundish said.
Hospitality officials are looking at Delta Terrace as a possible site for the new mail room because of its central location on the Hill and its accessibility to passersby, Dundish said.
If the team from Housing and Hospitality Services decides to use Delta Terrace as the site of the central mail room, the first floor will undergo renovations to remove rooms and install walls of mailboxes, he said.
The decision to change the mailing policy is based on a recommendation from the United Parcel Service. A few years ago, UPS approached UCLA and recommended using a more centralized system like other U.S. universities.
After performing their own studies and observing the workings of the postage facilities in the University of Arizona, UCLA officials decided to implement the changes on the Hill, Dundish said.
Sean Grant, a second-year computer science student, said he thought putting a mail room in the middle of all the residential halls would provide easy access for students getting their mail because students would only have to walk halfway up or down the Hill.
The shift may be problematic for some students, however. Grant said the policy change would be difficult for students who live at the top of Hill, like in Hedrick Hall and Hedrick Summit, because they would have to carry heavy packages a long distance.
But the change could also affect students who are not native to Los Angeles, said Stephanie Do, a third-year biology student.
“(The change in policy) would be a real big hassle for people who don’t live in L.A., like people from (Northern California), who get a lot of things mailed to them from home,” Do said. “It would really bring down the convenience of the dorms.”
