Forget Christmas cards and Hanukah presents. Halloween candy and
Thanksgiving care packages should arrive just in time for the
holiday season if you live on campus.
Since school began 10 weeks ago, many student residents have
complained of either late or lost letters and packages. As a
result, dorm residents have become disillusioned with the UCLA
mailing system.
“I have had a lot of regular mail that is at least two
weeks late, that shouldn’t be late at all,” said
second-year undeclared student and De Neve resident Andrew Whelan,
who spent his first quarter of last year working in the Dykstra
front desk and mailroom.
Whelan blames the occasional laziness of mailroom workers for
much of the delay and is among many students who insist that their
mail regularly gets to them a couple weeks later than it
should.
Avri Rahamim, a De Neve mailroom worker and fourth-year
cognitive science student defends the mailroom staff by saying,
“We’re trying as hard as we can, but mistakes happen. A
lot of mail comes through here.”
Whelan is one of several students who complained of receiving
absentee ballots late.
“I didn’t receive my absentee ballot until the day
after the election,” Whelan said. “I resent the fact
that I didn’t get to vote.”
Others are frustrated about not receiving their absentee ballots
at all.
“I just never got it,” said second-year political
science student Kathryn Woodruff of her absentee ballot.
“It’s just frustrating when everyone on campus is
rallying support for voting and you’re just stuck here
sitting on your hands because you can’t do anything, you
can’t vote,” she said.
Absentee ballots aren’t the only items that seem to arrive
just when the recipient has forgotten about them. “I had one
package with cookies that was two weeks late and they were stale by
the time I got them,” said first-year marine biology major,
Sproul resident Tricia Coyne. “And my credit card bill was
late because it was in the same package.”
Despite the abundance of complaints from dorm residents,
mailroom employees insist that they are for the most part prompt in
delivering mail to an individual’s mailbox.
“I’m not going to vouch for the accuracy of sorting,
but most of the time you’ll get stuff the day it gets
here,” said Rahamim.
Residence Halls Manager Steve Dundish states that if a delay
occurs in receiving mail, it is not the fault of the UCLA
staff.
“All mail received by us is sorted daily and put into mail
boxes,” Dundish said. “No back-ups occur because of
us.”
He also says all complaints of lost mail he has received have
been about packages shipped through USPS.
What is even more frustrating to most student residents than
receiving their mail late is not receiving it at all.
Second year biology major, Sproul resident Roy Yu said that he
never received the $200 technical equipment he sent for last
year.
“Somebody in the mailroom signed for it from UPS, but I
never got it,” Yu said.
Before student mail is delivered to the UCLA mailrooms, it goes
to the Village Post Office. The delay and loss of mail occurs
somewhere between the Village Post Office and the student mail
boxes, namely the UCLA mailrooms, said Village Post Office Customer
Advocate Lisa Moore.
“When they can’t find stuff at the UCLA mailroom,
they call us, but it’s never here,” Moore said.
The Village Post Office receives these types of phone calls an
average of three or four times a week, she said.
Some students, like second-year engineering student Cliff
Pajaro, do not even have mail sent to their UCLA address anymore
because of the delay and for fear something will get lost in the
shuffle.
“I don’t even check my mailbox anymore because
it’s so slow,” Pajaro said. “I just have all my
mail sent home to Orange County.”
The problems of mail delay and loss may be aggravated if student
mail needs to be forwarded to a new address, said Whelan.
“Things about returning or forwarding mail got lazily done
when I worked in the Dykstra mailroom. The job just got passed on
or swept under the rug. It wasn’t a big deal, but I always
thought it was a little strange,” he said.