The other day I mentioned to a friend that I could not reach my mailbox. I confided that I was worried that in the act of jumping up to jam my hand into my mailbox, I would accidentally push my mail back into the unknown abyss that is the other side of the mailroom. She jokingly replied, "Well, I think we should protest by pushing our mail through our mailboxes until we get stools to prevent such a catastrophe."Obviously, I do not suggest that anyone reading this column attempt to organize such a protest. However, as Brandeis changes its facilities to accommodate a more modern and growing campus, it is important that they first consider all of the ramifications of such changes on daily campus life.

Though at first glance it may appear that your mailbox was simply enlarged and moved to a more inconvenient location over the summer, in reality these new mailboxes are a much-needed improvement. As the University's student population increases, more mailboxes are needed to allow for each student to have a mailbox. And with these new mailboxes, there was actually room for 60 to 80 extra mailboxes to be installed, according to mailroom employees.

Additionally, the inconvenient shape of the old mailboxes was simply damaging too many packages and needed to be replaced. These new wider and shorter mailboxes can accommodate Netflix DVDs, paperback books and small packages without squishing the packaging.

However, our new and improved mailboxes were installed at the level of the old mailboxes, which means that the highest mailboxes are a bit higher than the old mailboxes were.

As soon as I saw that my mailbox had relocated to a higher altitude, I went to speak with the mail employees. They were extremely kind and offered to change my mailbox to a new mailbox that I could more easily reach. While this is very generous and accommodating of the mailroom, this seems like a bit of an impractical solution. Since an indeterminate amount of students may have mailboxes that are out of their reach, it would be difficult to systematically change all of their mailboxes and all of their contact information listings. However, being fearful myself of the logistical nightmare of changing all of my contact information, I declined and suggested that stools be placed in front of the mailboxes to aid the more vertically challenged members of the Brandeis community. Which, in all honesty, is a bit of a stretch, as even I cannot reach my mailbox and I am a pretty modest 5 feet, 6 inches tall.

Still, all the mailroom really needs to remedy this simple problem are stools. However, the mailroom holds the valid concern that people would steal these stools, thus rendering the new mailboxes unreachable once again. Additionally, if the stools get stolen from the mailroom, they would be a poor investment of the mailroom budget. What the mailroom really needs is a permanent bench installed around the perimeter of the mailroom to allow students to reach their mailboxes without jumping or risking the loss of their mail back into the mailroom.

The installation of these new mailboxes is a definitely a step in the right direction, but it would have been smart of the University to troubleshoot before actually installing them

This is not the only circumstance so far this year in which it would have been wise for the University to consider the ramifications of updating. Unusually long lines in the Usdan Café have been the result of a new cash register system purchased over the summer. While it is cool that that Brandeis has a new touch-screen check-out system, it seems that the new systems take longer to process each transaction than the more primitive keyboard-operated registers.

Personally, just as I would prefer a more awkward-shaped but lower mailbox, I would also prefer to have a more retro register check me out than newfangled register that eats my lunch time.

As Brandeis works to keep up with the times, it is important that the University considers the fact that newer may be bigger, but newer is not always better.