BY LINDSEY HAZLETT | PHOTO BY YASIR ALHUMAIDAN
Students have reported over the semester and last year that mail has not arrived when they’ve been notified that mail was sent to them, according to Michael Metcalf, director of transportation and security at Edgewood College.
An informative email was sent out by the Security Department on October 10th of this year, alerting all students, staff, and faculty of this concern. After seeing this email, Sarah Weh, a freshman and occasional user of Edgewood’s postal service, shared, “I guess knowing this does make me feel a little bit unsafe having my mail shipped through here. But really, it just makes me mad.”
A second alert will be sent out soon through the Dean of Students containing more information on the issue, specifically intended for parents.
Metcalf has some advice for students:
“If you want to make sure your mail gets here, you’ll have a significantly better chance if you put the tracking feature on it so everyone will have to sign for it along the way. Typically, mail does not disappear when you’re tracking it, because then the US postal service would know exactly where it disappeared. There is less of a chance of a regular white business envelope getting taken. The colored envelopes broadcast ‘birthday card: money is in here!’ They’re not going to take a white envelope. We haven’t had thefts with white envelopes. It’s always the colorful ones.”
The US Postal Service (USPS) is currently conducting an investigation, though Metcalf said, “They haven’t been overwhelmingly helpful.”
However, the investigation has brought some leads so far. Metcalf disclosed, “We contacted the Madison Post Office and they forwarded us to Milwaukee’s . . . We ended up tracking [the theft] back to Milwaukee.”
Metcalf is confident that the theft isn’t linked to Edgewood’s postal worker either. “We’ve had the same mail carrier at the college for ten years or more — the same guy. It just seems really odd. When we talked to the local postal workers at the college, they agreed– there’s just no chance.”
Gomoll described in detail the processes involved in receiving and distributing postage within the mail center. Multiple checkpoints are involved in ensuring that no mail falls through the cracks.
Any student, staff, or, faculty member suspecting mail theft should bring the following information to the security office: when the missing package was mailed, what post office it was mailed from, what was in the envelope or package. Also, if it contained a check include whose name was on the check, and if it was cashed.
Post your comments