Interfraternity Council (IFC) President Brian Bertges is afraid that he might be committing a federal crime.

Bertges said fraternities have been forced to break the law by either opening or throwing out another person's mail because the United States Postal Service has a policy of not forwarding fraternity mail to a new address after a member has left the house.

"They just don't [forward mail] for fraternities, but they do it for other people," he said.

Bertges said he became aware of the problem when he filled out a mail-forwarding card, but the form was rejected by the post office.

United States Postal Service spokesman Victor Dubina said that under federal policy, because fraternities are under one address and not separate room numbers, the mail goes to that one address and is sorted out by the people living inside.

"There are an awful lot of people living in one house," Dubina said.

Repeated phone calls placed by The Daily Collegian to the State College Post Office were not returned.

Bertges said because fraternities are left to in-house forwarding, they are forced to store large amounts of mail in the house until alumni can retrieve it.

IFC Vice President Drew Conly said his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, 429 E. Hamilton Ave., usually keeps the mail until the person comes to pick it up. If the mail looks serious, they call the person and send it to the new address.

"I wouldn't consider it a major issue," Conly said.

Bertges said the post office policy is a problem because recent alumni could be missing important bills or other mail and not be aware of it.

If, for some reason, mail needs to be sent to a new address, fraternity members can either mark "return to sender" or put the new address on the piece of mail and give it back to a postal worker, Dubina said.

Dubina said that important mail usually gets into the correct hands.

Penn State Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Kevin Kerr said he spoke with Bertges about the issue and told him to first talk to the State College postmaster because the rule is a federal policy.

"I have only received one or two complaints about this issue," Kerr said in an e-mail message.

Bertges said he plans to speak with U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., about the issue in the near future.

"I'm hoping he'll be able to talk to the post office and have them forward fraternity mail," he said.

Bertges added that it was "a little ridiculous" that the post office can forward other students' mail in State College but exclude fraternities.

Jeff Vorberger, Peterson's legislative director, said the topic should be addressed a week or two after the issue is proposed to the congressman.

Dubina said the policy of not forwarding fraternity mail has been around for just as long as the postal service has, so the policy will most likely not change.

"It'll stay the way it is," he said.