The remaining mail is then picked up daily and taken to the University's mail forwarding center in Allston, where forwarding address labels are attached, based on summer information provided by students via the HUMS website.

HUMS employee David R. Berry said that all mail is sent back to the Central Square post office for forwarding within 24 hours.

"There's no mail backlog here," said Berry, who is in charge of mail forwarding. "It comes in and goes out."

HUMS employee Chris J. Gengarelli said that students wrongly assume that his office is the only one that handles student mail, causing many to blame HUMS for delays.

"There's a misconception that all the mail comes here," said Gengarelli, who receives complaints on a daily basis.

And he said that students may also overestimate how much mail they should be receiving, making the forwarding service appear slower than it actually is. Junk mail is not forwarded to summer addresses, which greatly reducing the amount of mail a student is sent.

"We recycle more than half the mail that comes in," Gengarelli said.