It has watched droves of students pass without giving a notice. It has endured Louisiana’s scorching summers and devastating hurricanes. It has seen Saban go and Miles arrive.
A mailbox near the side entrance to the Journalism Building stands at attention like a British foot guard wearing the purple and gold colors of the University and bearing the contradictory words “no mail.”
It’s resided on the sidewalk for a decade and a half, but what purpose does a mailbox that shuns its sole calling serve?
Before the mailbox became a fixture on campus in 1997, newspapers that were delivered for the Manship School of Mass Communication often were scattered throughout bushes, soaked from rain or stolen, said Sandra Donaldson, who was the assistant to former Manship School of Mass Communication Dean Jack Hamilton at the time.
“We came up with the bright idea of seeing if we could find a mailbox,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson questioned the University’s postmaster about acquiring a mailbox, and soon it was nestled near the journalism school. Students adorned it with their school’s colors and tiger paw prints.
The mailbox is still a receptacle for newspapers for mass communication students, according to Angela Fleming, executive assistant to current Manship Dean Jerry Ceppos.
Fleming and Manship School administrative coordinator Elizabeth Cadarette are the “guardians” of the mailbox. They retrieve The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal each morning after a courier drops them in the box.
But newspapers aren’t the only items that keep company in the mailbox’s walls.
“We’ve had some interesting things thrown in there,” Fleming said. “Especially after game days.”
Some careless tailgaters have mistaken the mailbox for a trashcan and used it to discard their garbage, half-eaten food and alcoholic containers, Fleming said.
One student on campus continues to put mail in the box despite the “no mail” message, Fleming said. The Manship School courteously dispatches the girl’s packages, though there have been times when the parcels were coated in filth from the tailgaters.
The mailbox also acts as a nest for an array of insects, including wasps and ants. Cadarette once peculiarly retrieved two toy trucks from the mail holder.
Fleming said the mailbox, the only of its kind on campus, has never been vandalized and nobody has ever attempted to steal it. It once wore a padlock, but it was removed because it has never been disturbed by students.
 
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Contact Ferris McDaniel at [email protected].