Mail & Document Services
57 US Highway 1 - ASB II
New Brunswick NJ 08901-8554
Phone: 732.932.2143
Fax: 732.932.3799

Place Order: 732.932.2143

Packages from Home Arrive Faster

It has long been an issue troubling RU’s student community. A gift parcel arrives from home and the student has to navigate from one campus to another to retrieve it. Students would then carry their oversized parcels on an already overcrowded campus bus, or worse, by the time they were able to get to the campus post office, Mom’s cookies had gone stale.

This past year MDS sought to enhance the campus mailbox system to conform to changes presented by the Transformation of Undergraduate Education (TUE) Project. Primary mailbox assignment rules were changed so that assignments were no longer made according to which college a student attended but, instead, by the student’s campus of residence. Mail security was also improved, as residents no longer share mailboxes. Students who live off-campus were also assigned mailboxes, but share them with other off-campus residents. Further, these reassignments give University departments the ability to send students personalized Campus Mailings at no cost.

With programming help from Darrell Hall and Lucy Feng, Administrative Computing Services, the mailbox assignment program was re-written and our student webpage was redesigned. The new program reassigned all but approximately 2,500 of returning undergraduates to new mailboxes. The most dramatic changes occurred at the Busch Post Office, which now handles only resident mail (not enough mailboxes to handle both resident and off-campus students). Therefore, Busch off-campus students (primarily School of Engineering and School of Pharmacy students) were moved to the Livingston Post Office.

Residents living in two particular dormitories are extended even more personal mail service. Since mailboxes are located in the lobby of Rockoff Hall and the University Center, these students will receive US Mail and Campus Mail at their dorm. University Center students, however, are required to pick-up packages at the Rutgers Post Office located in Records Hall. These students were also assigned an “RPO Way” address, which is posted on the Student Record Database (SRDB).

All students whose mailbox assignments were changed were notified of the changes by letter over the summer and changes were posted on the university website as early as July. Informational pieces were also placed in the Targum and on RU-TV to ensure sufficient notices were sent out to the student body.

Even though the majority of the key decisions for box assignments are computer generated, we have not removed the “human factor” from our decision making process. Students unhappy with their mailbox location can request a change to another Campus Post Office or another location at the same Campus Post Office. For example, as of this notice, many Engineering and Pharmacy students have asked to move to the Rutgers Campus Post Office (College Avenue location), or to the Cook or Douglass Campus Post Office; MDS satisfied all request, to date.

As with any program modification, we have found some things that we need further attention, particularly as we move to issue “Mailbox Assignment V2.0” – feel free to forward us any suggestions you may have to improve upon this year’s version.