The Union Drive Association is preparing for minor changes in its post office service, which has caused mixed reactions among Iowa State students.

Helser Hall will open a post office this fall that provides the same services as the Depot in Friley Hall.

Ginny Arthur, associate director of the Department of Residence, said the residence halls are moving from a complex hall-based system to a complex office system, which is implemented at various other universities.

“Students would get the majority of services in a central location,” Arthur said. “The hall desk system would take it one step further.”

Construction of the post office has begun across from the Jones House den on the first floor of Helser Hall and will be completed this summer.

Arthur said the hall desk will have a different format, acting as the hub of the hall that provides more services than the Depot.

“People will get their keys there, can check out equipment — everything they can get at the Depot,” she said. “Staff will be trained to be more in tune to the activities of the residence halls.”

Arthur said the post office will provide services for students from a closer location, and the separate residence halls will serve individual residences.

“Physically, Friley’s Depot will remain the same. It will serve Friley students,” she said. “Helser will have a hall desk for Helser and Westgate residents.”

Some students said the new post office is unnecessary because it requires students to pick up their mail and attend food service in Friley.

Most Westgate residents said the addition would separate the locations of food service and their mailboxes, and that the difference in distance is insignificant.

“That would be a better system,” said Lenora Hill, Westgate resident and freshman in zoology. “But I would prefer a post office in Westgate.”

Kathryn Obenhauser, resident of Helser Hall and junior in elementary education, said the new post office would be a waste of space. Obenhauser said the post office in Friley provides adequate services, and it enables students to obtain their meals and pick up their mail in one trip.

“I don’t think [the new post office] is really necessary,” she said. “It’s an extra expense for students to pay.”

But some students view the project as beneficial.

Daniel Hites, freshman in pre-computer engineering, said he would appreciate the convenience of a closer post office.

“That would be nice. It would be very convenient when it gets cold in the winter,” he said.