Elizabeth Pulanco/Winonan

Over the summer, the Winona State University Housing Office changed the way students receive their packages. These changes are part of an effort to make sure care packages and mail-order textbooks are all getting to their rightful owners.

Kirkland and New Center Hall Director Sarah Wilson explained the change in procedure.

“There are two reasons why we changed the process,” Wilson said. “One, we wanted to ensure the accuracy in processing the mail by making sure people were getting the right packages and being able to track where the packages were.”

The second reason was that the Housing Office wanted to eliminate confusion by making their mailing process similar to the Package and Receiving Center in the facilities office. The Package and Receiving Center receives mail for the whole campus, which is then distributed to individual buildings. With the new system in place, locating a lost package became a standardized process across campus.

One thing the Housing Office added was an extra step in the package notification process: The “Package Received” form, which is distributed to student mailboxes.

“Last year, instead of getting a ‘Package Received’ form, students would get emails when they got a package,” Haley Seehafer, desk assistant in Lucas Hall, said.  “Now people have to check their mail boxes more often to know they got a package.”

With this new system, Housing hopes to prevent future mishaps with packages.  Although misplaced packages were uncommon, they still caused stress for the student desk workers.

“When there was a misplaced package, it could take up to a day to figure out where the package was delivered and to transfer it back to the right place,” Wilson said.

“Now, we’ve been documenting things so the packages can be found more quickly.”

The “Package Received” forms are also making sure the packages are sent to the right people. Before receiving their packages, students must sign their names on the forms.

Since the processing of the “Package Received” forms is very detailed, the procedure takes much longer.

“We understand that the process is time consuming, but we believe that because we are improving the accuracy of sending the packages, it is time well spent,” Wilson said.

With the new process in full effect, more students can be seen checking their mail boxes in hope for a “golden” or pink ticket that will give them access to the packages that belong to them.

Contact Elizabeth at [email protected]