The Olympian: ISU faculty billed for bad news
POCATELLO, Idaho – It must have been bad enough for some Idaho State University faculty members to open a letter informing them that they could be laid off. But then the bill came.
University spokesman Graham Garner said the postage due bills were the result of an error by the U.S. Post Office, the Idaho State Journal reported.
ISU, like other state schools, has to make cuts recently due to mandatory state budget holdbacks. It’s required by law to notify its adjunct professors of any potential layoffs – which it did in a letter sent to faculty members’ mailing addresses, Garner said.
The U.S. Post Office was supposed to charge the certified mail processing fee – about $5 per letter – to ISU’s mailing account. But Garner said the post office instead mistakenly billed the school the cheaper first-class postage rate, and then billed the professors for the extra cost. The university intended to cover the difference, Garner said.
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