All residential students are able to receive U.S. Postal mail and package deliveries from major delivery agents (USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL) while living in University Housing. Items that are delivered locally, such as floral arrangements, perishable items, are received by the Commons Desk as well. However, items delivered from restaurants, retail or grocery stores, or third-party companies such as Instacart, GoPuff, DoorDash, etc., are NOT accepted at the Commons Desk. Students are responsible for meeting the driver to receive those deliveries. Perishable items will be properly stored in a refrigerator. Only mail addressed to the student residing in the room will be released, and mail must be addressed to the student's official University name on file.

TIPS TO ENSURE QUICK MAIL DELIVERY:

• The terms "Penn State" or "The Pennsylvania State University" should NOT be used in the address. This may divert the package to the University's Business Services and not the common desks.
• Mail and packages should be addressed to either the student's official name or preferred name that is listed in LionPATH. Mail or packages sent to family names, nicknames, fictitious names, or joke names will be returned to sender.
• Candy, room keys, and/or liquids should not be sent in envelopes.
• It is advised to not send cash, checks, or gift cards in envelopes.
• Packages should be tracked and insured.
• Prohibited items per the HFS Contract will not be released and will be returned to sender (for example, air conditioners, alcohol, etc.)
• Penn State does not utilize street addresses, the room/hall name is the street address.

Please use the proper Mailing Address to ensure prompt and accurate delivery.

For example:

Nittany Lion
131 Pollock Commons
Beaver 101
University Park PA 16802

*DO NOT USE THIS ADDRESS: 319 N. Burrowes Street, State College PA 16801. Any mail or packages delivered to this address may not be retrievable, this property is not owned by the University.

NITTANY APARTMENT ONLY:

Student's Official Name
600 E Pollock Road
Apt. Number, Nittany Apts.
State College PA 16801

Nittany Apartment mailboxes are located outside of the Nittany Community Center for buildings series 1000, 2000, 4000, and 5000. Mailboxes for building series 3000 are located near the parking lot next to Building 31.

Nittany Apartment residents must go to the McAllister Building Post Office to pickup a mailbox key.

Students living in East*, Pollock, and South will have access to a physical mailbox located near the Commons Desk. The mailbox number and combination is viewable in eLiving under the My Info > My Room. If a student is unable to open a mailbox, the student may submit an FixIt maintenance request; Commons Desk staff are not permitted to remove mail from the mailbox and hand to a student.

Students living in North, West, and some buildings in East* will have all U.S. Mail processed as a package and the student will be notified via email that a letter is available to pick-up. 

*East buildings that do not have a physical mailbox: Geary, Sproul

HOW DOES THE PACKAGE DELIVERY PROCESS WORK?

When a package is delivered to the Commons Desk, the staff will enter the package into eLiving under the student's account, and then place the package on the appropriate building shelving unit. The eLiving system will then generate an email that is sent to the student's Penn State Access Account, confirming that a package has been received. A student must present his or her Penn State id+ Card to pick up packages at the Commons Desk.

Please be aware that there is a processing delay between when the package is identified as delivered by the shipping agent and when the package is processed by Penn State. Students should not go to the Commons Desk to retrieve their package until they have received the email from eLiving.

The U.S. Postal Office in McAllister Building (next to the HUB-Robeson Center) on campus is available for students to send packages or buy stamps; the Commons Desk is not able to ship packages or sell stamps.

If a student has a room assignment change during the semester, the student's mailing address and mailbox information will change. U.S. Mail and packages received at the Commons Desk of original room assignment will be forwarded to the Commons Desk of the new room assignment until the student can update information with family and friends.

If a student believes that they are missing United States Postal Services mail, or has received mail that has been tampered with, the student should submit a claim form either by calling the Inspector General at 888-USPSOIG or submitting online at www.uspsoig.gov/hotline.

The student is responsible for updating their permanent address through the Penn State Account Management (psu.edu) system to ensure that US Postal Mail received after the student has checked out of University Housing can be forwarded. Mail that cannot be forwarded will be returned to sender. The University is no longer able to forward packages, unless the student provides a pre-paid shipping label. All packages will be returned to sender. 

Campus Mail Services provides service to the campus community outside of University Housing, and is managed through Multimedia Print Services.