2008 Woodie Awards
Campus mail carrier doubles up on duties
Ian Paterson
Issue date: 5/11/07 Section: News
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Upon the retirement of former mailroom employee Kenneth Roberts, Southwest Baptist University had to re-evaluate how they handled campus mail.
The conclusion Jim Hillman, director of human resources, came to was to have each department or dormitory come to Sells Administrative Center and pick up the mail allotted to them.
"The mail is delivered to SBU," said Hillman. "The mail supervisor sorts it and puts it in slots or bins, then people from the dorms pick it up. Then they do further sorting from that point."
Although this new system of mail delivery is effective, it is not as efficient as it had previously been.
"We're taking it one step at a time," said Hillman. "What happened was [Roberts] retired, and the decision was made not to replace [his] job, so we're promoting the person who was there (there [were] two people in the mail room). [Roberts'] job had a little more responsibility than the other one, so we're promoting the other one to [that] job.
"Without two people there, we're not exactly sure what services we can do in the mailroom. So we basically said, 'we're going to curtail delivery to various buildings and various departments around campus until such time that we know what the new procedure is going to be.' … We're two weeks into it now, and probably later this week, we'll make a decision about whether we can return to delivering mail or not."
However, while Hillman is confident in his admission that there are a few kinks to be worked out with the new system, Campus Mail Carrier Gerald Lewellen has his doubts.
"I'm not exactly sure it won't go back to the way it was next week," said Lewellen.
"Right now, the offices are coming down to pick up their own mail throughout the day, and that's caused some problems. Dorms are kind of a problem. I think there might be some liability issues there, with secretaries getting out in their high heels, trying to walk when it's all icy and slick and nasty - things like that."
The conclusion Jim Hillman, director of human resources, came to was to have each department or dormitory come to Sells Administrative Center and pick up the mail allotted to them.
"The mail is delivered to SBU," said Hillman. "The mail supervisor sorts it and puts it in slots or bins, then people from the dorms pick it up. Then they do further sorting from that point."
Although this new system of mail delivery is effective, it is not as efficient as it had previously been.
"We're taking it one step at a time," said Hillman. "What happened was [Roberts] retired, and the decision was made not to replace [his] job, so we're promoting the person who was there (there [were] two people in the mail room). [Roberts'] job had a little more responsibility than the other one, so we're promoting the other one to [that] job.
"Without two people there, we're not exactly sure what services we can do in the mailroom. So we basically said, 'we're going to curtail delivery to various buildings and various departments around campus until such time that we know what the new procedure is going to be.' … We're two weeks into it now, and probably later this week, we'll make a decision about whether we can return to delivering mail or not."
However, while Hillman is confident in his admission that there are a few kinks to be worked out with the new system, Campus Mail Carrier Gerald Lewellen has his doubts.
"I'm not exactly sure it won't go back to the way it was next week," said Lewellen.
"Right now, the offices are coming down to pick up their own mail throughout the day, and that's caused some problems. Dorms are kind of a problem. I think there might be some liability issues there, with secretaries getting out in their high heels, trying to walk when it's all icy and slick and nasty - things like that."
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