Many services means many packages for
busy Mail Center
Tayler Kent / Reporter
Elon University Mail Services has seen a dramatic increase
in the number of packages students are receiving this year.
In the month of February alone, 7,619 packages were received,
nearly 23 percent more than last year.
Mail Center employees attribute the rise to an increase in
the popularity of online shopping.
"I think it has to do with the Internet,"
Mail Center Supervisor Chuck Sparks said. "This year
I'm seeing more stuff from Land's End, Victoria's
Secret and eBay."
Textbooks from online book retailers also account for a
large percentage of incoming mail, according to Sparks.
The Mail Center shelves are packed with boxes from popular
online book sellers such as Amazon.com and
BarnesandNoble.com.
In addition to struggling with packages, the Mail Center has
also been busy mailing admissions booklets to prospective
students. The majority of what goes on behind the scenes at
Mail Services involves mass mailing to high school students
who have shown an interest in Elon.
"We save a lot of money by sending admissions booklets
and applications in bulk," Sparks said.
Valentine's Day hit Mail Services particularly hard.
More than 2,000 parcels poured in over a two-week period,
creating long package pickup lines and a shortage of shelf
space.
"I think the mail center does a pretty good job of
managing the long lines normally," sophomore Tiffany
Lyons said. "But there are certain times when it can
take a long time to pick up a package because there are so
many that are coming in."
Sparks recently visited UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte and
East Carolina University to see how the numbers compared
because he was curious about whether Elon's monthly
package volume was similar to other universities in the
state.
He found that these schools, which have significantly higher
student populations, receive less than half the number of
student packages per month as Elon.
"We call it the culture factor," Sparks
said. "It's just the difference between public and
private schools."
Sparks also acknowledged that many UNC and ECU students live
locally and can have packages sent to their homes.
Elon also sends and receives packages from DHL, UPS and
FedEx, services that many larger universities do not offer.
"We get a lot of packages because we have all of these
services,"
Sparks said. "It's really what makes us unique.
Everything is in the same place.
The bombardment of packages seems to have momentarily
subsided, but Mail Center employees have learned this year
that they can't always anticipate when the next busy time
will be.
Contact Tayler Kent at pendulum@elon.edu or
278-7247.
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