How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Last November, Third North residence hall resource desks changed to an e-mail notification system for mail packages. This semester, Brittany, Weinstein, Founders and Lafayette residence halls followed suit.
According to Craig Jolley, director of residential life, Palladium Hall and Gramercy Green will be the next dorms to integrate the system.
Halls currently use two systems. One was designed by a resident assistant in Third North. Weinstein and Brittany also use this system. This student-designed system, which has a database for logging in packages and notifying students, also allows residents to swipe their NYU IDs for package pick-up. Lafayette and Founders use a professional system called Arrival that the university purchased from the company Pitney Bowes.
Jolley said halls have responded positively.
"We spoke with [PB] and they seemed to be very pleased with the product and support," he said.
The student-designed system is being used in smaller residence halls until a more professional and permanent system is implemented.
Even though this system is cost-effective and satisfactory, it is only a short-term solution.
"We believe that installing professional systems supported by an established vendor are more sustainable over the long-term," Jolley said.
LSP freshman Alexa DePalma, a Third North resident, likes the new, more environmentally friendly system.
"We are saving the environment [and] I check my e-mail more than my mailbox," she said.
But CAS freshman Shuan Sim, a Weinstein resident, said it has been a hassle.
"They should go back to the slips system," Sim said. "When they left slips of paper in the mailbox, at least I could get my packages before I went up to the room where my computer is. It's a hassle to have to go up, then come back down again just to collect packages."
Over the next few weeks, the housing department will work with the vendor to discuss further expansion into other residence halls. As the system grows, it will most likely move to a server-based configuration, where all data will be in one place.
"Once the costs and logistics have been arranged and the funding has been identified, we will install the equipment and software at the new locations, train the staff, and begin implementing it as soon as possible," Jolley said.
