Postal Services
Policies and Regulations
Campus Mail
“Campus Mail” is mail generated on the Oshkosh campus to be delivered to an Oshkosh campus mail stop. There is currently no charge for this service. An mail route has been designed to provide delivery within 24 hours. We do not have a courier route to the Fox Cities or Fond du Lac campus at this time.
All intercampus mail must be addressed to a person’s Name and Mailstop. This information can be found in the University Directory.
It is each employee’s responsibility to maintain current and correct information in the Univeristy Directory. Contact Human Resources with any change requests.
General Distribution Mailings
General distribution materials are flyers or brochures that are not individually addressed and are presented to Postal Services grouped by department counts we supply. There is currently an All Employee Distribution and a Faculty/ Academic Staff Distribution list. Material printed at Document Services may be requested as a campus distribution at the time of printing. Be sure to notify a member of Document Services that you would like it prepared as a distribution mailing.
Student Organizations
Materials originating with student organizations not officially recognized by the University must bear the signature of a member of the faculty or administration who will bear responsibility for them. UW Oshkosh policy doesn’t allow items of a political, religious, or private business nature to be dropped into the campus mail stream to avoid the USPS.
Mail Piece Dimensions
Letters
Size Limits:
- Rectangular; length is the dimension parallel to the address with aspect ratio between 1.3 and 2.5: length divided by height.
- At least 3.5 inches high by 5 inches long by .007 inch thick
- No more than 6-1/8 inches high by 11-1/2 inches long by 1/4 inch thick
- Up to 3.5 ounces
Flats
Size Limits:
- Rectangular
- No more than 12 inches high by 15 inches long by .75 inch thick
- Must not be rigid and must be uniformly thick.
Parcels
Size Limits:
- No more than 108 inches in combined length and girth.
Postcards
Size Limits: Single thickness, cannot be folded
- Minimum: 3-1/2 inches high by 5 inches long by 0.007 inch thick
- Maximum: 4-1/4 inches high by 6 inches long by 0.016 inch thick
- Additional postage is required by the USPS for larger postcards.
Contact Postal Services for current postage rates.
Forwarding Mail
The United States Postal Service does not forward mail for individuals within an organization. USPS regulations state that mail addressed to a corporate entity becomes the property of the company or corporation. Mail addressed to an organization can only be forwarded if the entire organization is moving to a new address.
The decision of whether to forward employee mail is at the discretion of the department chair or the Dean of the college. This is because the department chair or Dean of the college set policy of expending university resources. It is up to them to determine if the mail is departmental business or personal, and if deemed to be personal whether to expend the resources forwarding it.
Off-Campus Mail
University supplies and postage are to be used for official mail only. Personal mail charged to university accounts constitutes fraudulent use of state funds. Violators are subject to prosecution.
Individual pieces of mail will be processed and sent to the USPS only if they bear the name, department name, and mail code of the sender. Pieces not bearing this information will be returned to the mailer.
Larger groups of letters should be securely bundled together. A bundle consists of ten or more letters sent under the same mail code and may be comprised of either domestic or foreign mail, but not both. Bundles may be mailed with facing slips listing the sender’s name, department, and mail code. All envelopes in the bundle must face the same direction, with the return address in the upper left hand corner. The envelope flaps must be up and nested if being sealed by Postal Services. If there are less than ten envelopes, all envelopes must be sealed to prevent their contents from falling out. Failure to do this may delay delivery or cause the item to be returned to sender.
Mail received after 3:30pm is not posted until the next business day. It is expected that all official mail will be sent by the most economically practical means. The class of service given to unmarked mail will be decided by Postal Services.
Packages are mailed in the most economical way unless otherwise noted or requested.
Definitions
University business mail is considered to be that which deals with the business of the university or its subdivisions, or that promotes the mission of the university or its subdivisions. Examples of “official mail” are:
- correspondence with agencies, institutions, and organizations dealing with official actions of the university or its subdivisions;
- letters of recruitment;
- manuscripts or reports submitted to scholarly journals which do not entail, as a prime objective, monetary return to the sender;
- materials relating to approved research projects or the teaching function of the sender.