Like most people living here on campus, I’m always happy to get a letter in the mail.

It’s a feeling of excitement that developed during my childhood that will probably never go away. When I peek through the little window of my four by six inch gold colored mail box and see the vague shape of an envelope quietly sitting and waiting, all sorts of exciting images conjure up in my head; thoughts of letters from home, postcards from friends or possibly that long awaited paycheck. Come on paycheck! No, just another letter from the University’s business office. Crap.

The question I’ve had for quite sometime is this: Why does Missouri Southern send mail to me through the U.S. postal service? I live on campus.

Remember 400 students, including myself, currently live here on campus.

I get an average of five letters each semester from various departments on campus; five is on the low side. Most of the letters I receive are sent from the University’s financial aid office or business office and postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service for 37 cents each. Maybe 37 cents is a small amount of change for a University that charges me $6,079 each semester (out-of-state tuition and living on campus) but 37 cents multiplied by the number of students on campus and the average amount of letters sent is $740. That’s $1,480 a year.

Maybe $1,480 is not much, but if the University wants to save money so they can build more flag poles around the football field then this could be a place to start.

Wouldn’t it be faster and more economical to hand deliver the letters mailed from various campus locations to the residence hall mailboxes?

It’s just a thought. It would also make the deliveries faster. Sending them through the Joplin Post Office takes additional time.

Maybe there’s a conspiracy going on within the college mailroom and the U.S. Postal Service. Have I stumbled onto something big? Is the U.S. Postal Service trying to keep its monopoly over delivery services, including cross-campus delivery? I called the mailroom to get an answer.

The campus mailroom tells me that the various campus departments are supposed to separate mail before it’s sent to the mailroom. There goes my conspiracy theory.

Come on people. By not sorting outgoing mail you’re driving the people in the mailroom crazy and costing the school $1,480.

Maybe I should have written about the crappy University radio station or the horrible food at the residence hall cafeteria. Oh well.