When tango shoes for Ph.D. candidate Nina Lanza reached the UNM Mailing Systems mail room, they were promptly returned to sender, because they weren’t considered University business.
Lanza, an officer in the Lobo Tango Club, wants to know what policy sets the standard for professional mail.
“There’s no official policy,” she said. “There’s nothing that says how they will determine whether something is personal. They just have told me … that they are very experienced in determining what is and is not University business.”
Section 6340 of the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual states, “Using University envelopes and University postage for personal purposes is prohibited. Professional books are considered personal mail and the mailing costs cannot be charged to a University account.”
University Postmaster Alisha Foster cited the policy when explaining the reason behind returning Lanza’s package without notifying her. When a package comes into Mailing Systems, sorters look first for evidence the package was paid for with a P-card, which indicates it was bought using a purchase order, she said.
However, Lanza said she and other members of her department sometimes pay for packages with grant money, not P-cards, so the method used by Mailing Systems should have returned those packages as well.
“They say I can’t buy any lab equipment that I buy with my own grants, even if the grants come directly to me,” Lanza said. “I’m just very disturbed by that idea that somehow my course material isn’t considered UNM business and that Mailing Systems gets to make that decision.”
Foster said her organization has enough experience to tell when the contents of a package are being used for University business, even if the rules defining the process are vague.
“Something purchased with grant money would be considered University business,” she said. “I agree that maybe the policy needs to be more defined, but it still wouldn’t change the fact that it’s not the University’s responsibility to deliver her shoes to her at her place of business. She needs to have those delivered to her house.”
Lanza said she thinks the issue goes beyond her tango shoes and would like to see the policy changed.
“It really is an issue of censorship,” she said. “I know they don’t feel like that … but what they are doing is essentially (determining) what is and is not appropriate material to be sent to the University, and I think that’s really against the academic environment.”
John Geissman, department chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said he and several members of his department have, however infrequently, received personal mail, but he said this is because Mailing Systems has historically provided quality services.
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“We’re impressed with the mail service here and we appreciate the way things are handled,” he said. “Occasionally, I use the system. I have a great trust in the system.”
When Lanza told her colleagues in the University community about her conflict with Mailing Systems, she said they were surprised such a policy existed.
“Many people, faculty and staff, said that they were not even aware that there was a policy against personal mail, and they have things that are shipped to the University all the time,” Lanza said.
Foster said Mailing Systems has been following UNM policy laid down by the president and Board of Regents, and her organization would be willing to change methodology if the policy changed at an administrative level.
“If the president wants to say that that’s not how he interprets the policy, I’m fine with that,” she said. “But we will need to make changes in our department to accommodate the extra burden of mail that we’re going to have.”
Lanza’s shoes were delivered to her house a week later than they would otherwise have been delivered, she said. She also had to pay an additional $15 shipping fee.
