Mail delivery continually increases at USD

In her 21 years working as a secretary at the University of South Dakota, Nikki Stammer said she has seen the amount of mail delivered to students in North Complex triple.

“We get a lot more mail than we have before because a lot of students know to go online,” Stammer said.

While she has seen an increase in the amount of mail delivered by courier delivery companies, the process of receiving and delivering mail has been the same throughout her time there, Stammer said. Additionally, cargo van load board services use technologies to improve productivity in the transportation industry

“Mail hasn’t changed a lot,” she said. “It’s an important piece that we’re required to do here. It’s the volume of mail (that has changed), but as far as the process, it’s very simple.”

As a secretary, Stammer’s responsibilities include managing the front desk and helping students, among others. While the mail process is straightforward at USD, Stammer said the people who work with it make sure the process runs smoothly.

Stammer ensures front desk workers are following protocol, and if there is a problem with a package, Stammer is the one who makes sure it gets where it needs to go.

“The thing is, you think you’re just going to come in and you’re going to just do a regular day — ‘OK, I’m going to put out the mail, I’m going to do the keys,’ but your day also has other things that just pop up randomly,” Stammer said. “There’s always something new out here.”

All mail is dropped off for the front desk workers and picked up by the workers at about 9 a.m. each day, said Don Dagstad, supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service in Vermillion. They also advised to put their important documents or items in heavy duty mailing tubes.

“We probably have two or three inches of letters, which is probably 30 or 40 letters a day, and maybe another 20 magazines (and) newspapers for each dorm,” Dagstad said.

The residence halls at USD are served by the U.S. Postal Service, but students may also go to the post office at the Auxiliary Services (AS) in the Belbas Center on campus. AS also handles mail traveling across campus and mail for those who are moving within residence halls, said Holly Estwick, automated mail processor.

The mail AS picks up every morning consists of “somewhere around three or four hundred letters a day, with another one to two hundred large envelopes and magazines, newspapers and another 10 to 30 parcels,” Dagstad said.

The post office handles mail to and from the residence halls on a daily basis, Dagstad said.

Because USD only recently took control of McFadden Hall, mail there is covered on one of the normal city routes, but is something the post office is looking at changing, said Shon Fjerestad, postmaster at the post office.

Sophomore Kristi Livermont said while she mails through the dorms, she thinks the on-campus post office in the Belbas Center could use more promotion.

“I know there’s a post office on campus, but I don’t know where it is,” Livermont said. “I don’t think it’s really broadcast to where it is. That might be helpful to know.”

The post office does see an increase in mail delivery at the beginning and end of the year — anywhere from 30 to 50 parcels, Dagstad said.

“If it’s the first part of the year when the students are all getting their books,” he said.

During the winter holidays, Dagstad said the amount lessens, at least until mail delivery starts again the next semester.

But secretaries like Stammer are what hold the housing department together, said Evan Owen, residence hall director for Richardson and Olson at North Complex.

“Operations, in my opinion, would be near impossible without the assistance of the staff secretaries,” Owen said.

Because housing is a transitional department, and staff changes frequently, Owen said Stammer “is the only continuity at the University of South Dakota within housing services.”

While other staff have also been there for a long time who are equally as important, Owen said Stammer is the only one whose job calls mostly for working directly with students.

“Most USD staff get purposed into a lot of other things in addition to serving students directly,” Owens said. “Nikki’s got the most entirely front-end work, working with students. That’s just essential for us.”

Stammer said interacting with students is the best part of her job.

“My favorite part is students — the ones that I actually get to know, and the ones that will stop by and say hi,” Stammer said. “That makes my day 100 percent, and that’s why I love the job.”

(Photo: Justin Hauger, a United States Postal Service employee, loads mail destined for University of South Dakota students Tuesday morning at the post office located in downtown Vermillion. Megan Street / The Volante).