UW-Madison announces revision to Amazon pickup point plans

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is no longer considering the Red Gym as a potential site for an Amazon pickup point, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller said today.

UW-Madison will work with Amazon to find an alternative location that has less impact on campus space and programs.

“We’ve heard the concerns from building occupants in the Red Gym about potential impacts to a variety of student organization and programming uses,” Heller said.  “We take these concerns seriously and have agreed to work with our partners at Amazon to find a different location.  We continue to strongly believe this project will be a benefit to the university and campus community.”

The opt-in pickup point will ease package delivery and security, while simultaneously cutting down on delivery activity on the busy streets in and around campus.  The agreement will also generate at least $100,000 per year in revenue that the campus can invest in support of its public mission.

Since 2015, Amazon has opened staffed pickup locations at the following universities: Purdue University; University of Massachusetts Amherst; University of California, Berkeley; University of Pennsylvania; The University of Texas at Austin; University of California, Davis; and California State University, Long Beach; as well as in the college communities of University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Cincinnati; University of Akron; University of Connecticut; and Texas Tech University. Amazon will also open more locations in 2016, including: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Stony Brook University.