Centralized mail room implemented on the Hill

The original version of this article contained an incorrect attribution and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.

UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services recently opened a new centralized mail room, causing some residents to complain about long lines and packages not entered into the logging system in a timely manner.

The new mail room opened on Sept. 19 on the first floor of Delta Terrace in place of five other mail rooms, said Steve Dundish, east area manager of UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services’ Rooms Division. The new facility cost $2.3 million, according to UCLA Capital Programs. Workers started building the mail room in June after students moved out.

Housing officials decided to build the room to make on-campus mail delivery more efficient and to provide mailboxes for residents of new residence halls that opened this fall.

Students crowding the long lines outside the mail room said some packages were available for pickup several days after they were delivered to UCLA. Other students in the line were upset because they said they had to wait more than an hour for their packages.

Megan Tanwanseng, a third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said the mail room did not log her package immediately after it was delivered. She said she had to wait two days after her package arrived for it to be ready for her.

Dundish said the delays probably stem from the mail room’s homemade logging program that was not built for high-volume packing centers. Workers currently log packages individually and email residents when all packages have been logged.

Lines will most likely shorten this week after the mail room converts to a new logging system, Dundish said. The new system will improve the logging process by sending emails to residents automatically by using barcode scanners so residents can pick up their packages sooner.

The previous mail rooms on the Hill used the same homemade program, he said.

Twenty-two students work at the mail room and 12 students are usually working at a time, Dundish said. Two students are always at the mail room desk, while others sort and log packages in a back room.

Erin Beebe, a first-year undeclared student, said she waited in line for an hour and a half Friday evening to pick up a box of wall hooks at the mail room.

“I think it took a long time because (the workers) have to go to the other room to get the packages,” Beebe said.

Dundish said the renovation was necessary because delivery services usually only deliver to one location on college campuses.

“We (were) one of the few UC branches where (couriers) deliver it to the halls ourselves,” he said. “The amount of deliveries taking place around the Hill … was just getting to be too much.“

He said housing officials chose the Delta Terrace location because a majority of Hill residents pass the location on a daily basis.

“I understand that there’s lines, and we’re trying to make them move as quickly as possible,” Dundish said.

He said officials realized early in the planning process that students in Hedrick Hall and Hedrick Summit have to walk heavy packages up the hill to their rooms.

Housing and Hospitality Services hope to help students move large packages to halls at the top of the hill, and are looking into providing electric carts in some cases, Dundish said.

The old mail rooms in residence halls such as De Neve Commons and Hedrick Hall will be converted to student study rooms, said Jesse Herring, manager of facilities and event operations at the Office of Residential Life.

Herring said students on the hill frequently request more study space. He said workers will install windows in place of mailboxes to provide natural light.

The new study rooms will be available for students by the end of the school year, Herring said.

Correction: UCLA Capital Programs provided the figure of $2.3 million for the cost of the new mail room.