[12222] in APO News
Help save the MIT Post Office from its imminent demise
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mitchell E Berger)
Fri Sep 18 18:51:31 2009
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:51:18 -0400
From: Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@MIT.EDU>
Hi APO,
Now that the reason I pulled an all-nighter last night is finally out
in the open...
If you hadn't heard, the USPS is trying to close the post office in
W20. This would be a terrible loss to MIT for a number of reasons.
What's more is that our post office operates at a profit, and that
the USPS is trying to force this decision through with as little
input or interference from the public as possible. There are a good
number of fairly unscrupulous things that have been going on in terms
of withholding information, avoiding public response, etc.
It seems that the only way we have a chance of saving the post office
is to convince the folks in Washington to say something on our behalf.
Doing that requires convincing them that this issue matters to a lot
of us. You can help! If you care at all about having a post office
on campus, please, please find a little bit of time this weekend to
write a letter to our congresspeople. The most disappointing outcome
of this effort would be not having enough letters to show that MIT
cares when next week rolls around.
The following snippet appeared in the ASA official e-mail that was
just sent to all student group officer lists. Please look through
it and visit http://web.mit.edu/asa/usps/how-to-help.html to see
how you can contribute. Remember that there are four parts to
our Service program, and one of those is Service to the Campus.
I think we have a meaningful opportunity here to provide service to
our campus by trying to save our post office. Ask your friends
to help, too!
If you'd like to talk about it, I'm around somewhere... usually. 8-)
YiLickingFlatrateStamps,
Mitch
========== Snippet from ASA Official e-mail ==========================
3. Permanent Closing of MIT Post Office Likely
The US Postal Service has put the MIT Post Office (in the basement of W20)
on a list of roughly 400 branches being considered for closure. USPS plans
on making their final decisions on or around October 2. Desipte the fact
that our post office operates at a profit of over $200,000 per year, it
looks as if the post office is not going to be removed from the list,
unless the MIT community demonstrates just how many people would be
negatively impacted by its loss.
Austin Chu (eefi) and Mitch Berger (mitchb) are coordinating an effort to
save our post office. If you or your student group use it, please let
your student group know about the serious and immediate danger that the
post office is in. Ask your group's members to visit:
http://web.mit.edu/asa/usps/how-to-help.html
On that page, you'll find details about how you can help by...
* Writing a short personalized letter to our Congressman and Senator
* Calling their offices to speak with them about saving the Post Office
* Filling out a survey being conducted by the USPS about the closure
* Signing a petition by the American Postal Workers Union
Please feel free to email asa-post-office@mit.edu with any questions.
