Butler’s mail center in the basement of Holcomb building. Photo by Zach Bellavia.

SORELL GROW | STAFF REPORTER | svgrow@butler.edu

Butler University students living in apartment-style housing are facing difficulties regarding mail deliveries to campus.

Apartment Village, Butler Terrace, University Terrace and Christian Theological Seminary all have different methods of receiving mail and packages for students.

UPS, FedEx and Amazon, which has a new delivery service, all deliver mail and packages directly to all of the student apartments.

The United States Postal Service delivers once to campus each day. Any mail delivered by USPS to Butler is dropped at the mail center in the Holcomb building.

Packages for AV and UT residents that are sent through USPS are first dropped at the mail center. The mail center usually delivers those packages to the Dawghouse at AV and the UT lobby later the same day they receive them.

BT and CTS students have their USPS mail delivered directly to their apartment complex lobby, but they don’t have front desks.

Alfred Garcia, assistant residence life coordinator for the apartments, explained some student resident concerns about mail delivery.

“With CTS and BT not having their own front desks, for a lot of residents that’s an adjustment to make,” Garcia said. “It’s unfamiliar to them. It’s similar to what you would experience in an actual apartment complex.”

AV and UT have main offices in their buildings where mail is dropped off and sorted by front desk assistants.

CTS and BT do not have offices or front desk workers in their buildings, so mail delivery drivers drop the mail and packages at a certain location in the lobby of each building.

“BT and CTS are just the outliers due to their system,” Garcia said. “They don’t have the benefit of a front desk like the rest of the buildings on campus do.”

There are usually regular UPS, FedEx and Amazon drivers who deliver to UT and AV on a daily basis, Garcia said.

“We’ve made things pretty clear to the different mail delivery services about how it is that Butler works,” Garcia said. “I think we’ve done a very good job in explaining to them how things work here at Butler, it’s just that sometimes you run into hiccups with new drivers.”

Another issue with the mail system is confusion about the notification emails sent when a student receives a package.

When mail is delivered to the Holcomb mail center, students who receive a package are sent an email notifying them of the delivery to Holcomb. When the mail is transferred from Holcomb to the offices at UT and AV, students are sent another email.

Cyrus Stanford, junior marketing and finance major, lives in AV and said getting two emails every time he receives mail is very annoying.

“We give them [mail delivery services] the address of where we live, so why does it have to go through a middleman?” Stanford asked.

Chris Davis, director of print, copy and mail services at Butler, explained the route and delivery process.

The Butler courier picks up the mail for the main campus once per day in order to get mail into the system sooner and on a more consistent basis.

USPS delivers mail directly to the residence halls, BT, CTS and the greek houses once per day on their residential route.

The Butler courier delivers to the south end of campus in the morning and the north end in the afternoon, Davis said. A signature is required at the time of delivery, but if the door is locked or no one is available to sign, the package is returned to our facility and will be staged for delivery on the next normal route.

For students living in BT, the issue is the location, or lack thereof, where the mailman is supposed to put packages.

A.J. Mathews, junior recording industry studies major, explained the confusion about mail for BT residents.

BT doesn’t have front desk or an attendant, but each resident has a personal mailbox where letters are placed. Packages and larger envelopes are placed in a community parcel bin, Mathews said.

The community parcel bin is only about a foot and a half long and can usually fit one box and a few thick envelopes. When the bin is full or packages are too big to fit in the bin, the delivery man is unable to deliver the package.

“I think it would be really improved if we just had more communication and had a certain place where we could go to get packages,” Mathews said.