Postcards From the Edge

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will stop the U.S. Postal Service, but it takes whole lot less to slow the University Mail Service (UMS) to a craswl. It would seem, given instances of mail taking over a week to arrive from just 35 miles away, that the UMS is making it as difficult as possible to be a young man or woman of letters.

The situation is most dire in the basement of the Science Center at the Harvard Yard Mail Center, where mail is apparently imprisoned for weeks before it is lackadaisically distributed to 1,600 homesick, mail-starved first-years. How many more times can the University community look away as tears fall from the eyes of heartbroken first-years who were expecting grandma's cookies on time or the latest issue of Fetish Week before it hits the newsstands?

The 29 cents that we pay for a first-class stamp entitles us to more than a colorful picture of pre-Quaalude Elvis. As citizens of the fruited plain, we deserve to have our mail delivered promptly, not to be penalized simply because we are in college.

The problem lies with UMS, because it wasn't always like this. As recently as spring of 1992, first-years could count on getting clothing from J. Crew or Leather World on time, for the U.S. Postal Service handled the delivery.

UMS officials, by contrast, allege that the slow delivery "is the Cambridge Post Office's fault. "This claim is about as empty as the mailboxes of the class of 1997, as the Cambridge Post office is literally working overtime to sort Harvard students' mail before it is picked up by Harvard's private courier.

UMS must strive to improve service so that the transfer of mail from the U.S. Postal Service is seamless. U.S. Mail guidelines dictate that first-class mail must be delivered within three days in the contiguous 48 states. We deserve no less.

Steps must be taken immediately if we are to remove the stigma of being postally challenged from the Harvard experience. The situation is clearly out of hand when the U.S. Postal Service is being hailed as a model of speed and efficiency.