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Printing & Postal

Important work done on mailboxes at two residential communities

By Kristina Michel

Important work done on mailboxes at two residential communities

Workers from UH Postal Services spent the summer break performing important maintenance on the student resident mailboxes inside Cougar Place and Cougar Village II. All the mailboxes have had their combination locks changed out to a new combination.

“We do this as a security precaution so that previous residents that may be in the same building or are seeing a friend in that building cannot access another resident’s mailbox. This helps to prevent mail theft,” said Will Messer, supervisor at UH Postal who oversaw the maintenance. “It’s also a way for us to check if any locks are not operating properly.”

Together, Cougar Place and Cougar Village II have more than 2,000 mailboxes, so replacing the locks can be quite an undertaking. Each lock has to be manually removed and replaced with a different lock by UH Postal staff. The staff then checks each mailbox to verify the combination lock was properly installed and that each combination is correct and working as it should. After the locks are verified to be working properly, the staff sends a list of the changed combinations to Student Housing and Residential Life. Housing then assigns the boxes to the student residents.

The entire process takes about two to three days per residence hall. Maintenance on the Cougar Place mailboxes was completed the week of May 17 and at Cougar Village II the week of July 6. Though the maintenance can be laborious, Messer said it’s worth it to ensure the student residents’ mailboxes are functioning and secure.

“This work helps the students by giving them assurance that they are the only ones besides authorized staff to have access to their specific box,” said Messer.

Student residents can visit the UH Postal Services website at www.uh.edu/postal for helpful tips about campus mail services.