When school started at Loyola University Maryland last fall, the administration sent a welcome flier to the mailbox of every student living on campus.
By the end of the year, a third of those fliers were still unread. No one ever checked the boxes.
With the increasing reliance on email and social media slowing the flow of letters to a trickle — and many students ignoring what little comes through — officials at Loyola have scrapped the school’s entire student mail system, ripping out 4,000 mailboxes in the campus’ College Center over the summer.
In place of the traditional mailroom, they have designed a new system to meet another campus trend: The growing delivery of packages to students who now order everything from food to furniture online.