Hollins Post Office Remains Open

By: Allison Austin

Posted: 12/13/09

The United States Postal Service has taken the Hollins University post office branch off the national list of branches being considered for closure. In addition to the Hollins branch, three other post offices in the Roanoke area were saved from the chopping block, leaving only one out of the original five local branches considered still up for getting cut.

President Gray announced the new of the branch's reprieve to the campus on November 30th.

Miss Margaret, a Hollins post office employee, however, heard the news when she saw it on the TV.

"I am absolutely delighted that the postal service was able to come to an agreement, as we all felt that it was not necessary to close this branch and that it would against the public's best interest," she said of the news, continuing, "I'm ever so happy to still be your little post mistress here, and be here for y'all."

Student response to the news has also been positive.

"The post office on campus is a really great convenience and I'm happy we're still going to have it around and those jobs are going to be available, and Miss Margaret is still going be there to make me smile on a daily basis," said Meghan Ewart `10.

Amelia Campbell `11 agreed about the convenience and practicality of an on-campus branch for students.

"It would have been really inconvenient for students without cars, and even students with cars, to have to drive to get our mail. I receive mail so infrequently that I go without checking my mail for like a week, and I won't have anything. Or some days I'll go back and check it and I'll have something two days in a row. So if we had to drive to go get our mail I wouldn't know what kind of week it would be, whether I was going to get something every day or I wouldn't get something for a month. So with my schedule so packed with classes and extracurricular it would have been really inconvenient to drive over," she said, "And Hollins would not be the same without Miss Margret."

Students had mobilized early this fall to protest the branch's potential closure, with a reported estimate of over 400 letters sent out in support of the post office.

Campbell was one of the students motivated to write in. "I actually wrote a very harshly worded letter about not only about them closing the Hollins Post Office, but about them saying they wanted our opinion and then those letters being due back before we even got back to campus. It would not have been hard for them to find out when we were coming back to campus and to extend that date by a week. That felt like a slap in the face."

Ewart, who also wrote a letter, was pleased by the apparent influence the letters had, and felt like the Postal Service listened students opinions. She felt her voice was at least partially responsible for the decision. "It was a group effort, I wasn't the only one to send a letter. I guess I had a hand in it, but so did everyone else. So I'm glad we could do something about it."

Miss Margaret says she has been overwhelmed by the level of support on campus. "I'm truly thankful and appreciative for everything y'all have done - from students to President Grey, onward - that went out of their way in writing the letters and everything. It was just overwhelming to my heart. You made me cry."

She continued, saying she wished she could thank every student individually, "I've been trying to think of a way of how I could make it posted - I really wanted it be on a more heartfelt, individual basis - I wanted everybody to know I am so in awe and thankful for such a wonderful response to your drive to keep this post office open."