Doug Rae waited in line in the post office the other day to purchase three-cent stamps, but by the time he got to the front of the line, there were none left.

Long lines characterize the post offices since the increase in stamp prices from 29 cents to 32 cents. Many of the local post offices have not been able to keep up with the intense demand for three-cent stamps.

But Rae (junior-turf grass science) thinks the price increase was necessary because of the amount of mail that comes into the the post office.

"Not enough money is being allocated to the post offices of the U.S.," Rae said. If there is more money going into the post offices, he said, there would be better facilities, which would make shorter lines.

"Something needs to be done at the post office," Rae said.

Currently in Happy Valley, many people are concerned with this three-cent increase. The increase has caused negative feelings among some people, not to mention the long lines at post offices.

Jim McDevitt, customer service supervisor of the State College Post Office, 237 S. Fraser St., said there have been longer lines at the post office because of a shortage in three-cent stamps. But he said there have been no shortages of 32-cent stamps.

"People have a lot of 29-cent stamps left over from the Christmas season," McDevitt said. This causes people to purchase the three-cent stamps.

Although no one likes an increase in price, he said, people are not too upset because the increase was small. The State College Post Office has sold more than 200,000 three-cent stamps in the past 10 days, McDevitt said.

At the post office on campus, they also ran out of three-cent stamps, which has caused a big demand for one-cent stamps.

A campus postal employee said the post office has gone through 10,000 or 20,000 one-cent stamps. The campus post office orders their stamps from the State College Post Office, which also ran out of three-cent stamps.

But Melissa Miller (junior-animal bio-science) said she does not think the increase was necessary.

"I think its ridiculous that the price of stamps keeps rising," Miller said.

Miller also said the post office should be more prepared and should have made more three-cent stamps.

Anna Bookwalter (junior-industrial engineering) said she does not understand why it costs the same to mail a letter down the street as it does to mail a letter across the country. Nonetheless, she is willing to spend an extra 26 cents and use two of the 29 cent stamps to mail her letter.