By: Jaeda Goode
On Aug. 27, Southern Adventist University Student Association (SA) President John Hargy presented to the Student Senate a proposal to install Amazon lockers by the Village Market for the use of students and the broader Collegedale community.
“The school has contacted Amazon to start the process, but there are no other updates,” said Hargy at the meeting.
Though there are no guarantees of the Amazon lockers coming to campus, the process has been approved by Senate and is currently pending Amazon’s review with an estimated update in November or December, according to Hargy.
The proposal arose from research done by the SA team, which discovered that an estimated 13,000 packages a year are delivered to student housing, consisting of the dorms and Southern Village. In an interview with the Accent, Hargy said the purpose of the installation of the Amazon lockers is to relieve student workers of pre-processing work for checking in packages while accelerating the delivery processing time.
In addition, Hargy stated that the Amazon lockers would not come out of SA’s budget and would be provided by Amazon.
Hargy described the function of the Amazon locker as “a temporary mailbox.” The locker would operate as one package per slot. The locker also provides users with a day or two to pick up their package, using a QR code to scan and retrieve the package.
In the case that the locker is full, students would send their packages to the residence halls again.
“It all depends on how many packages we get from Amazon at a time,” Hargy said.
The lockers would be accessible to local residents as well as students, especially as the lockers would reside near the Village Market, which is open to the community.
When asked how the Amazon lockers would impact them, students spoke about how the faster delivery time of the Amazon lockers would affect their lives on campus.
Senior theology major Isaiah Lawrence stated, “There’s nothing wrong with the system we have, but things do take longer to get here, especially when we need them quickly.”
Freshman film production major Aryanna Davis commented on how the proposed lockers could cause her to use Amazon as a “primary option” for her deliveries on campus.
“If I have an emergency order, I don’t have to worry about being like, ‘Oh, it’s not going to get here on time,’ when it could be here a bit faster.”
Lawrence and Davis also expressed some concerns about the security of the lockers. Lawrence said students could share their QR codes with friends to help retrieve packages.
“People have a secure mindset here,” Lawrence said. “But – for example – that doesn’t stop people from stealing stuff – I’ve seen it happen before.”
Another concern brought up by Davis was the community’s access to the lockers.
“I don’t know necessarily about the location and who all has access,” she said. “I’m iffy on that; but, otherwise, I think just anything that makes the process quicker, I’m on board.”
According to Hargy, the next steps in getting the Amazon lockers officially approved would include Amazon coming to campus and doing a need assessment.
“Ideally, [the lockers] would be installed by the end of the semester or before the next semester, if it’s approved,” he said.
