Students and faculty will have a new option for mail service on campus in the coming months.
The University will choose a new mail service provider this week after the United States Postal Service office on campus was one of six Baton Rouge locations recommended for closure by USPS, according to Director of Campus Auxiliary Services Jason Tolliver.
“The University is dealing with budget cuts and looking for ways we can be more efficient, and one of the areas we identified is campus mail,” Tolliver said.
The University is currently in the process of choosing between UPS and Ricoh to take over mailing operations on campus with a choice coming as soon as today.
Tolliver said by consolidating mailing operations to one location, the new service would save the University $400,000 annually and actually contribute a “modest gain” back to the University.
The new company will also pay for renovations to the old post office area on the first floor of the Student Union. Tolliver called the new location a “one-stop shop” for mailing operations and said it will include a copy center.
The move will come with some unwelcome changes, as some University departments will no longer receive mail delivered to their desks. Tolliver said options like a department box in the post office are being considered as a vendor is selected.
Since the closure of the Union post office in 2009, USPS has been operating out of a series of gray trailers behind the Faculty Club on Raphael Semmes Road.
Tolliver said the new company will host post office boxes at a rate no greater than $70 per year for the basic box. The basic P.O. box with USPS cost students $44 per year.
Tolliver said the shipping rates for the new office have yet to be set, but the University will have discretion to approve prices.
“Students should not be paying more on campus for like services off campus,” Tolliver said. “It will not exceed the rate if you ship elsewhere.”
Tolliver said the University will negotiate the transfer of current P.O. boxes to the new location once the new vendor is selected.
Tolliver said he hopes the new vendor will be installed in the renovated location by late spring or early summer.
 
—-
Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]