Although the United States Postal Service is looking at closing about 3,700 post offices due to low sales, post offices near TCU will stay open.

The post offices that are closing are small, rural post offices that are not generating enough revenue to justify keeping them open, Glen Hulme, manager of the TCU Post Office said.

Hulme said many people do not realize that these post offices no longer receive any government support from tax dollars.

Since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, post offices are independent of the government, Hulme said.

However, post office prices are still regulated by the Postal Rate Commission, Hulme said.

“It kept them from raising prices like they should have, so they have this huge shortfall over the last couple of years,” Hulme said.

Hulme said the TCU Post Office and other post offices in the area have not suffered.

The TCU Post Office has actually had an increase in sales in package mailing, Hulme said.

“Students order all of their books online, so our package volume has probably doubled or tripled in the last two to three years,” Hulme said.

However, the letter mail and magazine volume has dropped off quite a bit, Hulme said.

“This generation doesn’t use what they call ‘snail mail,’ so that has really dropped,” Hulme said.

Hulme said he expects these trends to continue because people cannot receive packages and books online, while other correspondence is moving to online communication with the exception of the occasional birthday card or letter.

Hulme said he thinks there is an advantage to paper mail over online communication because there is more personalization.

Mary Frances Cargile, freshman business major, said she thinks there is an advantage to paper mail over technology such as texting, e-mail, and Skype.

“There’s something about getting something in the mail, like a tangible letter,” Cargile said.

Cargile said she has used the TCU Post Office three times since school started for personal communication with her family.

Tiana Lewis, freshman strategic communication major, said she checks her mail at the TCU Post Office every day and uses it to send letters to friends and family.

In reaction to the possible post office closings across the nation, Lewis said she thinks that would be inconvenient.

“I think that would probably be really inconvenient, considering we use the post office for everything from personal mail to taxes,” Lewis said.

Justin Trejo, a senior communication studies major, also said he uses the post office all the time for sending and receiving letters and packages.

“I live far away, so the only way people can send me stuff is through the post office,” Trejo said.