I see Jim's point. Bureaucracy can always rationalize red tape.

Does the claim slip with the serial number on it state in large print plain English that the student will be required to present his/her University ID card to claim the package? Is there a sign up in the mailbox area that informs and reminds students of this policy?    If it was a real policy, that ought to be the case.

The boss' rationale is flawed. University campuses always have people who are not affiliated with the university roaming around freely - people who come to hear concerts, look at art, browse the library, use the copy center and the bookstore, watch sporting events, walk their dogs etc. Making the students carry university ID doesn't make a campus more secure, when the other half of the people running around don't have to have ID on them. It's only in places where access is restricted that the argument makes sense.

And as far as security goes, to say that a university ID trumps a driver's license or passport is laughable.

In other parts of the world, people are required to have their national ID card on them at all times, by law, but not in the US.
I have heard people say that this is in the works for us here, too, in the next five or ten years. I don't know if it's true, but I imagine it will meet with a whole lotta resistance on the part of the average American. Maybe that's for another thread.

The authoritarianism thing - I say, resist it! Easy for me to say, of course. I believe you are right, Jim, if that helps, but whether it makes sense for you to expend a lot of energy over it is another question. If you go on quietly making a rule out of making an exception, that might be the best you can do, and hope that as the months go by people will relax a little.