Letter volume drops as Eastern Iowa college students embrace digital age

University of Iowa senior Erin Hagen can't recall mailing a single letter to friends or family in her time at college.

She has sent the occasional thank-you note, but no letters.

E-mail, Facebook and text messages are how most college students keep in touch these days. Hagen said she notices little incoming or outgoing personal mail in her job as a desk clerk at Hillcrest Residence Hall.

“You can always tell when it's their birthday or a holiday. They might get three cards in one day,” said Hagen, 21, from Denison, “but otherwise, it's mostly packages and magazines.”

The UI and Iowa State University don't track mail volume to and from students living on campus. But officials at the universities said they have noticed less mail to students in recent years as more business - personal and financial - is conducted online.

“There are very few handwritten letters anymore,” Sandy Lee, a Hillcrest clerk, said. “Once in a while you'll see a card from a grandma. You can tell a grandma's writing.”

That decline follows local and national trends for people of all age groups. Nationally, mail volume peaked at 212 billion pieces in 2006 but has decreased each year since. Nationwide, mail volume dropped 12.7 percent in fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30. Iowa City's decrease in mail for that same period was 14 percent.

“The university mail numbers are probably right in line with that,” Iowa City Postmaster Doug Curtiss said.

The national decline is mostly because of the poor economy, as businesses mail fewer items, but also in part because of a consumer shift toward online correspondence, postal service officials said.

Sometimes ISU students must be reminded via e-mail to clear out residence hall mailboxes that are full of credit card offers and junk mail, said Adam Foley, residence hall director at ISU's Birch Welch Roberts.

“Letters from home and correspondence in that sense has definitely dissipated, and that has played itself out in students not even bothering to check their mailboxes as often,” Foley said.

All that online activity has led to an increase in another kind of mail: packages.

Between Internet shopping and online textbook purchases, residence halls have seen an increase in delivered packages, officials said. Packages take more staff time than other mail, officials said, because paperwork and more steps are involved in the process.

“We get some pretty interesting items,” Hillcrest coordinator Ben Parks said. “Everything from a futon, which is a huge package, to some student who got hockey sticks last week.”

Samantha Zimmerman, 19, a UI sophomore from Sioux City, picked up a small package from her grandmother Tuesday at the Hillcrest front desk. Zimmerman said she gets a lot of letters and packages from her grandparents, but most students don't receive or send much personal mail.

“I'll get a Thanksgiving card, I got a Halloween card, I got May Day baskets,” she said. “I love it. I get so excited when I get mail, but most people just get stuff from the university in their mailbox.”