SRA Information

Role on Staff

As the SRA, it is your responsibility to be a liaison to the RA staff and your RD.  You have to balance a new role in being a leader amongst your peers.  The best way to help with this transition is to speak with your RD and make sure you are on the same page with them before the school year starts.  Be honest with your supervisor on how you like to communicate and receive information.  Amongst your RA staff you need to have an honest conversation with them outlining your expectations and what they expect from you.  For all tasks, talk to your RD if you wish to take on a bigger role and what tasks you would like to be a part of.  When you come to your RD with an issue, also come prepared with a solution. Being a SRA means the RD staff expects more of you and expects that you can come prepared with a solution to help fix a situation.

Mail Room

Mail Procedure

During the fall and spring semesters, all mail is delivered directly to each building by the Hempstead Post Office.  After mail has been delivered, the Senior Resident Assistant is responsible for placing all letters in the residents’ mailboxes.  The Senior Resident Assistant is also responsible for the forwarding of any mail for any individual whom does not live in his or her building.  It is the Senior Resident Assistant’s ultimate goal to ensure that every piece of mail is delivered to the correct person.

Mail distribution should be handled with the highest priority, as mail is EXTREMELY important to residents.  It is considered a federal felony to tamper with mail distribution; and any issues stemming from the mail distribution process, such as infrequent delivery, will result in sanctioning or termination.  If at any point you find yourself overwhelmed by any part of the mail procedure, it would be a good idea to speak openly with your Resident Director about your issues so that problems do not arise.

All mail MUST be sorted and distributed by 6:00 PM Monday through Saturday and MUST be done on a DAILY basis!

Mail forwarding should occur at least twice a week!

The following are some basic procedures that must be followed to ensure mail delivery and security:

1. Only the Senior Resident Assistant should be handling the mail.  If the Senior Resident Assistant is unable to do the mail on any given day, a suitable arrangement must be made with the approval of the Resident Director.

2. Sorting of mail should take place in the mail room of each building.  Mail must be kept in the mail room ONLY.  No students are allowed in the mail room during mail sorting, and at no time are students to be allowed to go through mail by themselves.

3. Packages must be logged and kept in the mail room or the RA office.  The Resident Assistant on Duty must distribute these packages for any residents who show a valid student ID and a package slip.

4. If there is the slightest suspicion of mail tampering or theft, the Senior Resident Assistant must notify the Resident Director immediately.  In turn, they must contact Public Safety and file a report.  The Senior Resident Assistant must also fill out an Incident Report and submit it to an Assistant Director of Residential Programs.

Setting Up the Mail Room

Properly setting up your mail room is the best way to ensure that your daily task of mail is done as efficiently as possible.  A disorganized mailroom will only make your task more difficult!

Things you will need…

Forms: You should keep an abundant supply of Package Log Sheets and Package Slips in the mailroom.  This will enable you to log packages right in the mailroom.

Signs: The following signs should be posted outside the mailroom to address possible concerns from residents:

• “Mail is Done for ____” sign (change each day to reflect current mail updates)

• Explanation of how mailboxes are opened

• “Your Address is…” sign

• Specific instructions on how to pick up packages and newspapers

Building and Campus Rosters: These will assist you with mail forwarding and completing mail with incomplete addresses.  Be sure to regularly get updated rosters from the Office of Residential Programs to reflect changes in occupancy.

Thick-tip black permanent markers: “Not on Campus” (NOC) mail should ONLY be marked with a thick-tip black permanent marker, which are available in the supply closet in the Office of Residential Programs

“Mail that Does Not Belong to You” location: Make sure you have a predetermined location where residents can place mail that has been put in their mailboxes which does not belong to them.  Be sure to frequently check this location, go through the mail, and ensure that it gets forwarded properly.

Also, make sure that all mailboxes are properly labeled.  It would be in your best interests to also TEST all mailboxes to ensure that they work, otherwise it is not uncommon for residents to report a high number of broken mailboxes within the first few weeks of the academic year. 

Packages

The system of package distribution can vary depending on the needs of each individual building.  Some buildings have a tendency to receive more packages than others.  Each Senior Resident Assistant is encouraged to develop and implement a package distribution system which best fulfills the needs of the area!  The following is a suggested and commonly implemented method:

1.      Using a black-tip permanent marker, mark each package with both a letter and a number, such as A1, A2, A3, A4, and so on.  Once the recorded packages reach A99 (or another predetermined number), now switch to B1, B2, B3, B4, and so on.

2.      Record in the package log the recipient’s name, room number, date received, and package number.

3.      Fill out a package slip, and then distribute it to the resident’s mailbox. 

4.      Keep an eye on packages that are not immediately picked up.  Generally residents are eager to receive their packages; therefore be aware of anything that has not been picked up within two weeks.  Chances are that the resident never got the package slip, has forgotten to pick up the package, or no longer lives in the building.  If there is a package that has not been picked up within two weeks, make all attempts to contact the resident to let him or her know that they must pick up any packages.  Many times a resident may not even be aware of the package for a variety of reasons.

Mail Forwarding

It is not uncommon to receive a number of pieces of mail and packages that do not actually belong to residents of your building.  This is because residents frequently switch their rooms during the semester, graduate, or even move off campus without changing their contact information.  Here is the procedure to follow to forward mail:

1. Sort the mail alphabetically – this will speed up the process.  Flip through the Campus Roster and look up the name of the individual which the mail is addressed to.

2. If the resident lives on campus, write the building and room number on the mail.  Use the following codes when forwarding mail:

AL = Alliance      

STY = Stuyvesant              

BOR = Bill of Rights          

CO = Constitution

ES = Estabrook   

CW = Colonial Square West

EN = Enterprise   

CE = Colonial Square East

VP = Vander Poel

NA = Nassau

NN = Netherlands North

SU = Suffolk

NS = Netherlands South

GRH = Graduate Residence Hall

Also, the Colonial Square and Netherlands areas are divided into different houses, each house number begins with a different number depending on the house (i.e. Jamestown 112, Leiden 424, Quincy 817, etc.)  You should be sure to label each house accordingly to assist with delivery:

Netherlands North:                Netherlands South:                 Colonial Square West:                       Colonial Square East:

100s = Delft                                700s = Utrecht                             100s = Jamestown                                700s = Providence

200s = Groningen                      800s = Orange                             200s = Newport                                    800s = Quincy

300s = Hague                             900s = Rensselaer                       300s = Plymouth                                   1000s = Cambridge

400s = Leiden                            1000s = Breukelen                      400s = Williamsburg                             1100s = Hampton

500s = Rotterdam                     1100s = Amsterdam                   500s = Dover                                          1200s = Hempstead

600s = Tilburg                                                                                   600s = Portsmouth                               1300s = New York

                                                                                                           900s = Salem                                           1400s = Norwich

1. If the resident does NOT live on campus, using a black-tip permanent marker, cross out any address information, leaving ONLY the person’s name visible.  Write “NOC” (for “Not on Campus”) on the piece of mail.

2. Bring all mail to be forwarded to the Office of Residential Programs.  Mail labeled “NOC” should be placed in the specified crate on the Student Aid desk.  Any mail that belongs to residents who live in buildings other than your own should be placed in the building mailboxes along the back wall in the Office of Residential Programs.  If you do not know where these locations are, please ask someone!

3. You are required to check your specific building mailbox in the Office of Residential Programs DAILY to pick up any mail forwarded to your area.  Deliver all forwarded mail accordingly!

Maintenance of Mailboxes

Notify your Resident Director of any broken mailboxes so they can be logged in the work order system, and assign the resident a new mailbox in the interim.  If no action is taken within one week, contact your Assistant Director of Residential Programs to follow up.  Keep in mind that mailboxes reported as “broken” are not always necessarily so; in many cases residents are just unaware on how to open their mailboxes.  Check the situation out first BEFORE you assign a new mailbox!