Mailboxes and the addition of a new mailroom system may sound as mundane as it can get, but things were rather different before the mailroom in Lawrence Hall looked how it does now. Plus, it can be interesting to see just how different something so simple could be compared to how it is now. Such is highlighted in this article from Feb. 12, 1980.

Students will find getting their mail a much easier task this fall with a new 24-hour mailbox system protected by locks.

The old cashier’s office next to the mailroom on the second floor of Academic Hall will house the new boxes, according to Charles Quillin, dean of student affairs.

“There’s enough (new boxes) to cover two students to a box, all of the students here (Lawrence Hall), all of the students over there (Thayer Hall) plus all of the major departments of the college,” he said. According to Quillin, each pair of students will have a private box. How the boxes will be dispensed is not yet known.

“We may do it alphabetically, but we haven’t come down with a system as of now,” he said.

Each box will have its own locking device, said the dean.

“They (the locks) will probably be combination, and of course we’ll be able to change the combination, like when there’s a vacancy,” he said.

Quillin believes the new mail system has two distinct advantages over the one now in use. “The system is a lot more efficient and faster, and the second thing is that it gives more access (to the mailroom),” he said.

The mail system used now is open 10 a.m. until 4 p..m. with an hour break at noon. Students must ask for their box number and show their ID before receiving mail. Quillin said students must go to the Playhouse in Oakland for classes and the new mail system should help them a lot. “They (the students at the Playhouse) really aren’t back in time to get their mail,” he admitted.

The current mailroom will remain open, but will handle packages and stamps only. Mail Clerk John Evans was not available for comment Thursday and Friday.

Tickets for special events will be sold at a window near the mailroom. “We’ve already sold some tickets down there in the old cashier’s office,” said Quillin. He said the only tickets sold at the window are for special events.

According to Janet Evans, director of Housing, the new system will go into effect in September.

The financing of the new system is from the Rockwell Grant.