Do universities have admin working in them all year round?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

Or do they close completely like schools do? I really need to get in touch with university of Leicester because I'm sick of them sending post for dead people who haven't lived in our house for 8 years. I've been trying for months to get someone to talk to me, I phone up and they just say I need the alumni department, they put me through but no-one ever answers the phone! It rings and rings until I get an answering machine, I leave a message and no-one ever rings back. So I gave up phoning a while ago. Emails also go unanswered. I tried sending a DM on Instagram a month ago and still not had a response, I assumed maybe there was no-one working?

What else can I do? I've tried returning the mail but that doesn't work either 😩

No, they don't close completely and there are always admin staff working (I'm an administrator in a Uni!). Not sure about the Alumni dept (we don't have one) but things like that would be directed to our Student Services dept. who are most defintely working but extremely busy atm with clearing and the associated activities.

If you are calling the main switchboard, try one of the departments directly - I would possibly start with the complaints section!

The Student Conduct and Complaints Team
[email protected]
+44 (0)116 252 2605

or The Advice Service in the Students’ Union
[email protected]
+44 (0)116 223 1132

If you're on SM you can also use Twitter to the main uni account or the alumni team account if they have one. There will be staff there who can sort this.

We get post for people who haven't lived here for at least 13 years. It goes straight in the bin. Not my problem - I've got enough of those of my own!

No they are in year round. Staff get 5-6 weeks holiday (generous but certainly not the whole holidays). I suggest emailing the alumni department

They are staffed year round but there’s a lot of leave taken over summer, can you cc’ in other departments that might chase it for you when you email?

Don't ring, most are remote working and they haven't linked phones up to any home system really, most people will be on email.

Don't got for @IsDaveThere's suggestion: that will be for and about current students. I'd try the main switchboard if you can't get the alumni department.

A big problem is that there may be no-one in post - a lot of universities have restructured and sacked their admin staff. So it may not just be a holiday, but a vacancy or one person doing the work of 5.

They may be working from home so won't be in the office to answer the phone. I'd email the Head of the alumni department

Their Twitter handle is @ LeicesterAlumni. I bet they're not about all the time though, especially in summer. If you try any other depts they'll just say they can't do anything for data protection reasons.

Have you opened the post? There may be a direct line and/or named person to contact on the correspondence?

If not I'd just return to sender with Addressee deceased written on the envelope.

As a lecturer although currently on ML, we have all forms of staff working all year round. The myth of the academic summer really irritates me and DH! We get 34 days AL.

I also work in a University - the complaints line may not strictly be the correct one but the query will get directed to the correct person. I would assume the OP has already tried the switchboard and they are the ones who keep putting her through to the Alumni department.

Our admin staff work all year round so with the exception of those who are taking booked annual leave, there will be someone in every department, they don't close whole departments down.

Those are for complaints about students and advice for students, not likely to be able to help. Phoning people is hopeless in our university because many admin people are still working from home. The nuclear option is to email the principal, at our place his staff are very efficient at redirecting complaints!

My son is a Co ordinator at local university( Bath) and works year round
Obviously there are busier phases( like now!) organising new student intakes)

Just email the alumni if you can find the address in the website. They'll be remote workong/no phones I'm guessing.

I work in uni admin doing post stuff - all departments are very separate and don't really communicate with each other, so personally I would open the letter and see which department exactly its come from and email their administrator.

I'm guessing it's just alumni office begging a dead graduate for money? Or else, inviting them to an event to pretend they're not begging for money?

Email the Vice Chancellor - that’ll get it sorted out pretty quickly.

If this has been going on for years, can you wait another few weeks? Now is a really busy time for university admin, and your query/request will be bottom of their list.
Have you returned the letters, marked with "deceased" or "not at this address"?

Has everyone missed where op said emails also go answered?

University staff are generally not term time only, summer will be an extremely busy time!

Emails go unanswered.
I used to send post back saying they were dead/unknown but I gave up when it was clear they either weren't getting the returns or just didn't care.
I have tried opening a few to see where they're coming from and it's always the alumni department.

If they are anything like the alumni department of my university you will struggle to get them to do anything (unless you have a few million to donate). I am a graduate of the department I got my degree in, yet I cannot convince the Alumni office that I did not study medicine. They write to me at my departmental address to beg for money for the medical faculty or to ask me to mentor medical students.

Email them. They are probably working from home.

I'd be surprised if there are no staff at all in the office even with home working. I work in a uni and we're doing hybrid working and we all have a core day where we have to be in the office. It's appalling that no one has replied to your email. In our university your complaint would certainly not be at the bottom of the pile. As others have said try Student Services.

Covid means big move to hybrid working, that's why phone calls get nowhere.
Twitter should do the job, though.

They are definitely staffed all year round, but the Alumni department in my university was pretty much one guy. So things progress slowly.