Apologies, my first sentence should have read:

"There is nothing authoritarian about having a rule that requires the person in front of you prove they are, in fact, a student at the university, AND the student who has rented the PO box in question.

It is a simple security issue. Now, if your supervisor is making the remarks you are attributing to her (which I'm skeptical of to begin with, because even I, a former U student and Board of Regents employee know what the deal is with student mailboxes) as the reasons for the policy, the supervisor is wrong. There have been numerous problems with contaminated mail, suspicious mail, and vile hate mail sent through the university mail system, Jim. Even you should be aware of that. The policy is the right one, especially in an age of terrorists, both domestic and foreign (let us not forget the antics of our domestic terrorists sending letter bombs either).