Lafayette College’s post office was held up processing deliveries to begin the fall semester, causing multiple students to experience delays in receiving textbooks, class materials and other supplies.
The mailroom processed more than 4,600 packages in a single week at the beginning of the semester, according to Dave Huber, the manager of Mail and Print Services.
“Scanning and sorting that volume takes several days, including evening and weekend shifts, and the team was able to catch up over the weekend,” Huber wrote in an email. He added that the surge in deliveries was “consistent with prior years.”
Aubrey Schneider ‘29 said multiple packages she ordered arrived on Aug. 24, but she did not receive emails notifying her packages were ready for pickup until Aug. 27 and 28.
Schneider said she went to the post office and asked whether employees could find a specific package prior to it being processed. She said her delivery contained books she needed for class.
“They said that unfortunately they couldn’t,” she said. “I totally get it. I mean, if it hasn’t been organized, but I was going a little bit crazy being like, ‘I know it’s back there.’”
Students in history professor Allison Schmidt’s class also experienced delays in acquiring required texts. Schmidt expressed understanding for the mailroom “just trying to do their jobs” in an email. She added that the backup was “distressing” to students but part of “a broader trend of professors requiring students to have physical books, probably in response to exhaustion from distracting technology in the classroom.”
“I know that Temple University is having similar issues with mailroom backup, so it’s not just here,” Schmidt wrote.
Megan Hayes ‘29 said she experienced similar delays to Schneider. Her Amazon packages arrived at the post office before she moved in on Aug. 22, but she could not retrieve them until roughly a week later.
“My sheets had just gotten here like two days ago, which was really frustrating,” Hayes said, calling the delay “definitely annoying.” She added that she has shipped “some stuff” to an off-campus address where a friend lives.
Other students approached by The Lafayette described delays as minor or insignificant.
“Based on past semesters, volume and turnaround are expected to be back to normal within the next week,” Huber wrote.
Lincoln Tripp ‘30 was able to pick up his Amazon package, which arrived at the mailroom on Wednesday, by Thursday afternoon.
“From the beginning of the year I assumed it would be kind of bad,” Tripp said. “But it hasn’t been too bad at all.”
Huber encouraged students to retrieve packages promptly after receiving a notification from the mailroom, writing that “timely pickup keeps locker turnover and overall processing moving faster.”