Morrison overwhelmed by packages

With the Morrison package center overflowing with care packages and book deliveries, the cancellation of plans for a new dorm sparked the need for creative solutions.

“Over time we’ve just had to become creative with regards to the space that we do have. Last summer we added casters to the shelves,” said Joanna Luke, a spokeswoman for the department of housing and residential education.

Morrison is one of two package centers on campus, and the only on South Campus; the other is located in Spencer Residence Hall.

Rick Bradley, the associate director for housing and residential education, said the volume of packages has grown exponentially in the last few years because of the increase of students on South Campus.

“It’s just outgrown the space at Morrison.”

Bradley explained they have a few options to fix this package dilemma.

“We could keep two package centers and take some of the demand that’s coming to Morrison and send it to Spencer,” Bradley said.

“The challenge of that is that carrying packages across campus is not the easiest thing to do if, say, you live in Teague and are walking all the way to Spencer and bringing a package back.

“So that’s probably not the best solution from a student’s perspective.”

Another solution is finding an existing space to convert into a package center.

Luke understands the pressure on Morrison and thinks the best way to combat the problem is to redirect some of the flow to Spencer or a third location.

“The volume over the last five years, for instance, has increased by 15 percent on average. Some years have been way more than that,” Luke said.

Students who work at the packaging center not only have to find places to put the multitude of packages, but also have to handle them three different times.

In the 2013-14 academic year, Morrison handled 89,347 packages, which was almost an 11 percent increase from the year before.

As of March, Morrison had received 94,715 packages this year.

“I’ve been (at the Morrison package center) for four years — I’ve seen how we’ve grown out of this space,” said senior Tess Guerra.

For right now, those working at Morrison just have to keep working as they are and take each package one at a time.

“We’ve definitely outgrown the space we have now,” Guerra said.

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