Above photo by Noah Weeks
Rick Goodman: a face most Colorado College students would recognize, but a community member many do not know. Goodman was born and raised in Michigan, but moved to Colorado Springs at the age of 23, where he came to meet his aunt and uncle. He met his wife, a woman from Leadville, at age 28. They lived together in Leadville for a couple of winters, but moved back to the Springs due to a lack of job opportunity. They were both teachers. Goodman taught woodshop and technology in Fort Carson public schools for 30 years, eventually getting his masters degree in Southwest Studies from CC, “because I got a pay jump,” he said. Goodman found himself in retirement eight years ago. “I was able to retire at 55,” he said proudly. Upon retirement, Goodman said he was “looking for some fun part-time job, so I ended up working in the mail room at CC .I’m not a sit at a desk kind of guy, so this job is good because I’m always active.”
“Bill and Sally and Kayla…they’re fun to work with. We work our butts off, but we laugh a lot and we have fun…and Sally…If something happens to her, this place is screwed,” he said of the mailroom scene. Of the greater community he said, “the interactions with the students…its a great community, the kids are wonderful…and that makes a difference.” This academic year Goodman has transitioned from working four to five days a week, to just one or two. “I’m just trying to be as retired as I can…you just caught me on one day I was working,” he said, “My wife said ‘you’re not working Mondays’…I love that woman.”
Goodman quickly directed his focus to life in the mailroom. “The job is a little frustrating sometimes,” he said. “The mailroom was built in the 70s…and we’re in 2016.” This reality, however, lies only at the surface of Goodman’s struggle with the mailroom dynamic. “I’m a little disappointed with how CC has let what’s going on down there happen,” he said, “I don’t know if they don’t care or if it’s low priority…but I mean really, its crazy…I bet yesterday we had 800 packages down there.” Rick expressed immense concern about the safety of the mailroom space itself, and the daily struggles he and his co-workers face. “I think the campus is great, and it’s being run well…but like they don’t have a clue…they don’t have a clue that there are 2,200 kids here, and we get 500 packages a day that we have to check in and we have to process. There’s just not room and it’s just not safe.” The chaos students experience simply in the process of rummaging through the crowd in downstairs Worner to reach their mailbox and wait in the long line for mail suddenly feels irrelevant, as Goodman touched on what we too often take for granted. Goodman talked about the layout of the mailroom and its hindrance on his and his co-workers’ ability to do their jobs. As he spoke about the mail sorting area, he said, “We couldn’t even get to it because there were too many packages.” As Goodman and I later walked through the cramped mailroom, he claimed the space is in good condition, as I struggled to meander around the piles of packages and thin spaces provided. We walked single-file down the small aisle where the backs of Worner boxes stand, again stepping over packages and envelopes that lay on the floor beneath each Worner box, as the storage space is already full…and how many times have students been written up for toiletries in the hallway as “fire hazards.”
Goodman mentioned a friend who worked part time for the CC mail room, stationed where packages come in. “He was over there and he tripped and fell and dislocated his shoulder…because there were too many packages…I mean there just wasn’t room..and now he’s off work. It sounds silly,” Goodman said, “I mean I know its just the mail and its just packages,” but clearly the issue is a matter of safety. Goodman, however, touched on another significant limitation caused by the lack of space. “Lets do the right thing,” he said, “If they did it right, there would be student jobs…students could help us process packages…it would be five jobs for students if we had a facility that could handle five more people.”
Not only does Goodman express concern for the physical safety of him and his co-workers in the mailroom, but he also addressed certain issues concerning their treatment as staff. Goodman talked about the summertime, where hundreds of packages arrive for incoming freshman and returning students.
“Well, we used to have storage but now we don’t have that anymore,” he said. Instead of a storage unit, the CC mailroom staff were assigned to a large shipping crate that sat in the parking lot by central services. “They wanted me to go in there,” he said, “no ventilation, no lighting, no nothing…that’s what they wanted us to go into…and in 90 degree weather…how can you do that to people. I’m not some idiot who’s just complaining,” Goodman said, “I’m an educated man who’s concerned.”
“I maybe work a day or two now when somebody’s sick, or they need me, but I don’t need the job… I like working here… everybody else down there is afraid to say anything, and they’re afraid to say anything because they need the job… I don’t need the job,” he said, and as Goodman walked me through the mailroom, his co-workers said the same thing. Goodman talked about the salaries of people who work for UPS or FedEx, people who are doing the same kind of work. “I started at $10.76 (August 2010)… I’m almost at $12 an hour (August 2016).” As the minimum wage has increased over the six years Goodman has worked at the mailroom, his salary has only improved slightly.
The question then becomes, as the minimum wage amendment was passed to raise payment to $12, will the mailroom staff see a raise too? “If you went and did your research…look at what the people at UPS…FedEx are paid…I mean we are so underpaid,” Goodman said.
“It’s as simple as the question: is the Worner mailroom safe?” Goodman asked. “I’ve been in education 36 years, I’ve been around kids, I’ve been around students, and nothing happens unless you guys make it happen or parents make it happen… but that’s the driving force behind everything.”