Students have hesitantly opened the doors to the Elaine Langone Center (ELC) this past week and entered with bated breath, only to find that the mailroom line was still as mind-blowingly long as it was at noon. They sigh and drag their feet to the back.

Any person who has received the email reading, “YOU HAVE A PACKAGE at STUDENT MAIL SERVICES,” knows what follows soon after.

“I usually have to go on a day when I don’t have any classes just so I can get a chance to get my package before they close,” Jenny Tyson ’21 said, referring to the mailroom line.

Many other students feel the same, and they are clamoring for the University to make a change. Coincidentally, such a change “came in the mail” today. Luckily for everyone though, they didn’t have to wait three hours to receive the news.

This very morning, the University sent out an email blast which addressed this student complaint.

“We know how tired students are with the massive lines that plague the mail center,” the message said. “By working with scientists, specifically an ornithologist, we have created the ‘Owls With Letters’ initiative, or O.W.L. for short. We hope that you will begin to see drastic changes to the mail system very soon!”

Then, the owl effect was felt by students almost immediately—many students stated that they were being air-dropped packages that weren’t intended for them.

“I have been receiving packages for a Samuel Gibson,” one student said. “I’m Leonard Martin. I don’t even understand how they could be confused.”

In some cases, the owls left packages on dormitory rooftops, and while it was certainly quicker to retrieve the packages from the roofs than to wait in the long line, students began to question the risk of climbing to their mail instead of waiting.

“I mean, I’ll be fine,” Darlene James ’19 said. “It was just some textbooks, but I mean, the semester will be over in a few months, I can make it.”

The University has yet to comment on the disastrous first few days of the O.W.L. initiative.