By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
The UA got duped.
Last week, College Coupons snuck through the system and mailed its coupon books to every UA department via the UA mail service, thus paying significantly less postage than it normally would to send out its product.
An unknown number of coupon books was sent to every university department. By using the free campus mail service, the company was able to save a lot of money in distributing their product.
It is a sad day when, on top of all the construction and reconstruction this campus is facing, it should be faced with any need to tighten its postage security.
Brooks Publishing, the company that provides the UA with College Coupons, has been taking advantage of its UA market for 20 years. It is a shame that it would taint such a longstanding business relationship by doing something like this.
It is also a shame that they got away with their scheme when other groups on campus are paying full U.S. postage prices in order to send their material to other areas of the UA. The Honors College, for example, pays the full 33 cents for every tiny piece of paper that it sends to its 4,000 honors students.
Given that the coupon books give the UA Bookstore's world wide web address and its logo, it is understandable why officials at the UA postal service did not realize that the company cannot use the UA mail service.
"This is actually the first time we let something go through," said Reynaldo Lopez, UA Postal Service Center manager. "Usually, we don't let menus and political things through."
But the company should have known better.
Apparently it was an honest mistake, and Brooks Publishing was merely looking for the best way to distribute its product.
"I've been scratching my head trying to figure out the most effective way to get the coupon books into the hands of faculty and staff," said Joyce Stokes, College Coupons regional manager.
Even though Stokes was looking for an effective way to send out her company's coupon books, it should have been evident that an outside business should not be allowed to use the UA's own cheaper postal service in order to send distribute its product.
Stokes also said that her company sometimes uses the postage services of the 43 other universities to whom they distribute. Maybe those universities don't mind if outside businesses take advantage of their cheaper postage, but the UA does.
Luckily the mistake was found immediately, and the company will not have another opportunity to use the UA mail service in order to send out its product.
And hopefully, the UA won't need to hire security just to protect its postage center from fraud.
