Residents of main campus housing at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) have been expressing their concern lately about how unreliable they feel mail services are.
Any packages sent to the residential spaces on Main Campus are handled through the student housing and residential life building. Once packages are delivered through the carrier, each package is input manually into a digital logging system. This system keeps track of all packages that have been delivered, as well as notifies students once their package is ready for pickup. According to the system, there have been over 3,500 packages logged and delivered since Aug. 15. Each day there are about 150-200 packages delivered to the main and Promontory office.
“As an RA, I have been getting more students coming to me with complaints about their packages than letters recently,” said Marcel Viles, a resident advisor in Tortuga Hall. “However, I have gotten both types and try to assist where I can, but I know the system for packages and letters are handled differently.”
Carly Nelson, a second-year business major, said she depends on medication delivered each month to treat her autoimmune disease.
It is a “significantly bigger package and it is also perishable, so it needs to be handled with care,” said Nelson. The package is hand delivered by her doctor’s office each month and last year it was handed off to the housing office with no issue.
However, recently when the deliverer dropped off the package, Nelson said, “I got a call from my doctor’s office on Wednesday but did not receive anything from the housing office, which is strange because they normally send an email the same day.” She waited until the following day before she called the housing office.
“The person on the phone did not sound like they were in the office because they had to call someone else to know if it was there. But they confirmed that my perishable package was there.” Thursday, she drove to the housing office and was then told that they did not have the package in the office. Nelson did not get a call back from the housing office until Tuesday, which was when she was able to go get her medication.
Nelson said, “It made me worried about my medication being refrigerated because if I thought it was refrigerated and it wasn’t and then they put it in my body it could be bad.”
While Nelson’s story is concerning, it is not a stand alone issue. Kelesey Amemiya, a second- year molecular biology student, said, “They said a package from Chewy went missing last semester, we broke for summer and then they gave it to me at the start of this year.”
“It pretty much disappeared for a few months,” said Amemiya. Housing was unable to track down where the package was even with the tracking number given by Amemiya. Then in September, housing reached out to her and gave her the package.
Paper mail is not completely handled by CSUMB housing as packages are. They are handled and distributed by the U.S Postal Service if you live in Promontory. However, the mailing distribution schedule provided by the CSUMB mailroom states that letters are delivered to residential spaces on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This schedule accounts for Residential Halls and North Quad, but does not address Promontory.
Lexi Bryant, a third year environmental science major who lives in North Quad said, “I didn’t get my letter until weeks after the delivered date.” The letter was a message from her mother and it contained a small amount of cash.
When she was informed by her mother that the letter was delivered to CSUMB, Bryant said, “I just needed to make sure I had it because it has money.” After waiting for a week, she went to the mailing office in person but was met with a note on the door, saying there was no one in the office at the time and to telephone for assistance.
Bryant then called the number, but was not able to get a hold of anyone. She left a voicemail explaining her situation, then had to wait two more days until her letter was delivered in the mail.
A day after the letter was delivered to Bryant, she received an email back from the mailing department which was checking in to make sure she got her mail and stated that “we have had staff out due to illness.” They proceeded to apologize and give the contact information of someone, who they stated “handles the deliveries for your dormitory.”
Letters are scheduled to be distributed, but it often takes two to three weeks after the delivery dates for letter mail to be received by students from their mailbox. Many important documents are mailed to students, such as paychecks and parking permits. The delay of these important documents can be stressful.
“The mailroom experienced a backlog for part of last year, but that has since been resolved with the addition of an extra staff member,” said Walter Ryce, the public information officer for CSUMB. He explained that with this extra staff the team is operating efficiently, even during busy periods.
Delays are extremely stressful for students but so is not having access to your mail. “I did not have trouble with mail being delivered, me and my roommate just struggled opening our mailbox,” said Isabella Pineda, a second-year marine biology major. “We lived in Yarrow last year and our key just did not work.”
Pineda’s roommate talked with facilities throughout that year and was given no clear answer on when there would be movement to fix their issue. Fortunately they were still able to receive mail but it was only when the mail service was around to open the mailbox.
According to Ryce,“Most inquiries and concerns are received by the associate director of Logistical Services, the mailroom supervisor or the logistical services. While we do not receive a high volume of formal complaints, we take every inquiry seriously and respond promptly.”
For packages, contacting [email protected] will put you in direct contact with someone who will assist with complaints or concerns. Contacting housing for both letters and packages is possible but there is another option for letters.
Letters are distributed by the U.S. Postal Service. They can be contacted at 1-800-ASK-USPS. Ask for the representative of the Seaside Post Office because they are in charge of CSUMB deliveries.