"Only first class mail is forwarded," he added, referring to items such as letters, bank statements and credit card bills.

While Moore says there is little that they can do to speed up the delivery process, efforts are still being made to help students not receiving their mail.

"We are conscious that there are problems, and we are working to fix them," Moore said. "When someone doesn't get any mail, that's when we investigate."

Students who call or e-mail with complaints have the option of having a tracking test done to see if mail is getting sent, with marked test letters sent through the forwarding system in order to track how long it takes to get to its final destination.

Dearbhla McHenry '00, who worked in the HUMS forwarding office two summers ago, said that a major problem she encountered involved mail from students who failed to provide a summer forwarding address.

McHenry said that mail for such persons was simply sent back and forth between the Houses and the forwarding center all summer.

"Some letters came back with six or seven identical labels on them, only to receive a seventh or eighth," McHenry wrote in an e-mail message.

Gengarelli says such letters are now only being re-labeled once before being returned to the original sender.