Campus post office to replace UPS

Wake Forest is planning to merge mail services on the Reynolda and Bowman Gray campuses to save money by creating a single university mail system.

As part of that plan, the University is opening a U.S. Postal Service contract post office on Jan. 1, 2011, in the space currently occupied by the UPS Store in Poteat Residence Hall. The UPS store will close by Dec. 31, 2010, when its contract with the University expires.

The University decided to bring the retail-postal operations back in-house rather than renew the contract with the UPS Store, said Reynolda Campus Director of Purchasing Phil Hendrix, who oversees Reynolda Campus Mail Services. The UPS Store opened Jan. 1, 2005, replacing a contract post office that had been operated by the University.

Faculty, staff and students should not notice any changes in services. Most of the changes will involve behind-the-scenes mail processing and sorting, which will be moved off campus to a new processing center that will serve both campuses.

The contract post office will offer the same services as a regular post office, plus, individuals and departments will be able to ship packages through Federal Express and UPS, as well as through USPS priority mail. Campus mail will still be delivered to Reynolda Campus offices and departments as usual.

The merger will not result in any layoffs of mail-service employees, said Hendrix and Dave Pitts, director of Mail Services and Parking Services for Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

The five employees who currently work in Reynolda Campus Mail Services — located in the basement of Poteat Residence Hall — will continue to be classified as Reynolda Campus employees, although some will have new responsibilities in the new contract post office.

The 25 employees in mail services on the Bowman Gray campus will remain employees of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Most of the Medical Center mail-services employees will relocate this fall to the new processing center, located off Jonestown Road in Winston-Salem. The postal center in Watlington Hall at the Medical Center will remain open, but the bulk-processing center in the Piedmont Plaza building will close.

Having a combined processing center will increase efficiency and save money by eliminating the need to purchase processing equipment and mailing software for two separate locations, Pitts said. The move should also save money by consolidating some delivery routes that couriers for both campuses currently cover.

— By Kerry M. King (’85)
Office of Communications and External Relations