University prepares for postage rate increase

By John Barron
Director, Service Center

As you probably have heard, the U.S. Postal Service will raise postage rates effective May 14.

The U.S. Postal Service released some of the details last fall, but the new rates were not fully disclosed until recently. Institutionally, the university is largely prepared for the increases, but adjustments to individual departments have not been made.

If you send out mailings, you can expect the postage portion of the overall costs to go up 5 percent, 8 percent or significantly higher depending on the class of the mailpieces that you are sending out.

The largest increases are for "flats." To be a flat, a mailpiece must:

• Have one dimension that is greater than 6 and one-eighth inches high or 11 and one-half inches long or one-quarter inch thick.
• Be no more than 12 inches high by 15 inches long by three-quarter inch thick.

Nina Ruud, Campus Mail Services Manager, will coordinate training sessions for the UST community in late May. Details will be announced in the Bulletin.