Imagine frazzled-looking people poring over an unprecedented number of unsorted packages trying to serve long lines of students that are not just picking up packages, but also inquiring if their package has arrived yet. There is no doubt that the campus mail center workers do some very difficult work that their universities can’t do without.
Automation and technology can make that difficult work much more manageable, and many universities would be happy to update their campus mail centers to become more streamlined with less intensive workflow processes. Unfortunately, other initiatives — enrollment, admissions and learning innovation — tend to dominate your focus. Consequently, your campus mail center often fails to get the attention it deserves.
If your institution is like increasing numbers of higher education institutions striving to provide modern and safe campus mail solutions, it may be time for change. “Old fashioned” campus mail rooms are not only a source of headaches for clerks and students, they also often devote too much space to mailboxes designed for letters and too little space to the growing volume of larger packages. This setup simply does not reflect the current state of campus mail. Today, many students don’t send or receive many, if any, letters. They do, however, get a lot of packages. According to a survey by Harris Poll, 95 percent of adults in the U.S. believe college students look forward to receiving packages at school from family and friends.