UNM Mailing Systems has set up an opt-out program for employees who want to stop receiving inter-campus flyers.
However, students and most student employees can't take advantage of the program.
Before the program started Sept. 3, Mailing Systems generated lists targeting specific employees, assistant postmaster Alisha Foster said.
"Mailing Systems provides campus mailing lists based on different criteria for departments if they want to send out advertising material or marketing material," she said. "They can choose different people from staff, faculty and other different options."
Foster said there have been requests to stop mass mailing for a long time.
"Over the years, we have had people that don't want these materials anymore, and we haven't had a way to offer that until recently," she said.
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Most of the inter-campus flyers are marketing information for new classes or other campus notices, Foster said.
But now employees can opt out of the program at MailingSystems.unm.edu, said Deb Wells, who works in the department.
The program also allows department heads to remove all their employees from the mailing lists, Wells said.
But there could be unforeseen consequences if entire departments opt out of inter-campus flyers, she said.
Faculty could miss important announcements, as some departments block all inter-campus mail, thinking it comes from marketing.
"There are departments that get stacks of materials in the mail that are just thrown away," Wells said. "The materials don't end up going to the people they were supposed to go to in some circumstances."
She said the opt-out program aims to reduce paper waste and give employees a choice in the matter.
Foster said employees and student workers can request not to get mail advertisements from specific departments.
"We have had calls from people who specify that they don't want anything from a particular department," she said. "So we are going to have to walk a careful line between pleasing the employees and pleasing the marketing department."
Foster said people who opt out probably were not reading the advertisements anyway.
Soon, employees will have the option of selecting what they do want to receive in the mail, Foster said.
Zach Sharp, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, said Mailing Systems' opt-out program will help the environment and shows UNM is thinking in a well-rounded way.
"It's not just the wasted paper; it is also the machinery, the chemicals and the energy put into distributing," he said. "This isn't going to save the world, but if you were to just do simple conservation things, then it will save money and resources."
But Sharp sees other benefits to the program, too. He said almost all of the mail he receives is useless to him.
"Each shiny, colorful catalog is addressed individually to a person, even though we all get the same flyers," he said. "I think it would be great to get rid of all this."
Although the opt-out program doesn't affect most students, senior Sasha Spencer said the new program is a step in the right direction.
"I think UNM decreasing the amount of paper they use for internal mailing is a good way to save trees," she said. "It's a good way for UNM to go green. It saves a lot of paperwork, and it also saves money for UNM."
Mailing Systems is also giving employees the option to reject mass mailings that are not related to the University's mission, such as furniture and computer catalogs, Wells said.
