Dear Professional,
Take a story.
This is a real incident that happened.
It was year 2007. The summer semester was coming to an end at Unitec New Zealand and new students had arrived at Unitec residential village. As per the welcome tradition, it was BBQ time for the village inmates. The BBQ was held at the hub – guess it was the second week of February 2007 and I think the BBQ was held towards the evening.
I still had a pending assignment for the 8023 course. So I used to come to the PG lab during the summer semester as well which began in December 2007. I also had taken a special business course during the summer semester.
It was extremely hot that whole day and there was very little air movement. The sun was so fierce that the air conditioning inside the lab would not help you to stay seated inside the lab. So having the lights on inside the lab as students routinely do was a bad idea. It really irritated you. Anyway there was enough sunlight entering the room.
I was working alone in the lab late that night. There was absolutely nobody in the lab at that time. The whole vast campus of Unitec remains deserted late night and the Unitec village is a 10 to 20 minutes walk from the lab depending on which side of the creek your apartment is. Only the light near my computer (which is opposite to the lab door and overlooks two rows of computers) was turned on inside the lab; hence the whole lab room looks dark from the outside and gives the impression as if nobody is inside the lab. Generally on normal days the whole lab is fully lit when students work in the night.
I guess it was past midnight when I heard some noise near the lab door. It was as though someone was trying to open the lab door. However nobody entered. The sound of the repeated effort made me to immediately look at the sensor device that is outside the lab door. It never blinked indicating activity outside the lab door. You need a swipe card to enter via the lab door and you also need the swipe card to enter through the main door (which is adjacent the lab window, and located towards the far end – rightside of my seat) and through the back door that takes you to the lounge area. So I thought the sound should be the echo of the effort of someone trying to open the main door but as felt near the lab door.
…And I was right!
Just moments after the sound subsided, a face emerged near the glass window. I have never seen this person before at the lab or at anywhere in Unitec during day or night time. He did not look like a student. He did look like a security guy but still his vibe was not convincing. So voices inside my head whispered: “Don’t open! Don’t open! No! No! No! Don’t trust! Don’t trust!”etc.
The person did not even look at me. He didn’t even knock on the glass window. He just gave one look at the first computer near the window, rightside far end from my seat, and then looked straight across the corridor leading to the rooms meant for the staff and then walked slowly with firmness and composure.
Minutes after his face disappeared from the window, the alarm bells started ringing. Though fidgety, I just waited for sometime before I left the lab and took the phone near the kitchen area to ring up the security. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the line. So I came back to my machine and sent an email describing what exactly happened and also alerted the security to keep an eye for any suspicious movements in the hub area or in any other areas of the campus. I also added the disclaimer that the mail could be ignored if my observation was a false positive and bears no significance.
In the next couple of days, the management sent me email asking me to describe how the person looked. I described him and finally I got the mail from the Unitec security stating that the person I saw was a new security hire and that he had set off the alarm that night.
The security though did not state the motive of the person or if there were any other people sharing the motive with this new security hire.
Posthumously I made some observations which may not be related to this “stranger outside the window” incident; but my mind was reflecting on what all happened during the first three weeks of February 2007.
1. There are two stairs leading to the main door. There is a flight of stairs from the lawn area outside the department and there is a flight of stairs near Unitec Students Union (USU) area. I sometimes enter lab from the lawn area which means you walk across the staff room corridors to arrive at the main door. Sometimes I enter from the USU area which means you directly arrive at the main door. In days before this incident happened I saw the name board of a lecturer hanging from his door. I don’t know if this had any significance to the incident I have described but I felt odd that this name board was hanging that way. I thought the name board was normally fixed before. So I thought that this hanging was only sudden and very recent. The name of the lecturer I guess is Bob Beechey and his room was to the right side from the main door when you walk across the corridor. For me this observation was a bad omen or something potentially fishy. Soon I ignored this observation and proceeded with normal day-to-day routines.
2. I was going through a very bad phase during that time accommodation-wise. Apart from reporting to the USU about the theft of my summer accommodation contract earlier (VISIT: http://mukeshparthasarathy.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/full-version-of-my-submission-to-“in-unison”-magazine-which-was-only-partially-published-my-feedback/ VISIT: http://www.usu.co.nz/inunison/columns/letters/he-scanned-it-us-too), the time had come for me to find myself a new accommodation as I had completed my studies at Unitec New Zealand. Just a couple of days after the BBQ day or so, I had to leave the Unitec residential village. When I first mailed the theft of my summer accommodation contract details to the USU earlier, Mr.Adam Beach, the next president of the USU from academic year 2007, shot back with an email replying something on the lines like: “Iam the new USU president. Those who are not USU members unsubscribe/quit”. The point Mr.Beach missed was that the summer semester was not yet over and that I was still officially a student and a USU member!!!…And that not he but Mr.Robert Freeth was the USU president!!! The response of the USU office was bad to my grievance about the theft of my summer contract document and I had to come to the USU office twice because the first time I came, I was made to sit like a dummy because the “In Unison” editor Mr. Rory McKinnon (or is it Rory MacKinnon?) asked the USU advocate Mr. Hamish Oakley to immediately send me away!!! Mr. Hamish Oakley later sent me another email inviting me to the USU office once again. Even when I met the USU advocate the second time, the “In Unison” editor was constantly making gestures to send me away!!!
When my grievance was partially published in the first edition of March 2007, the “In Unison” editor, Mr. Rory Mckinnon wrote something on the following lines in the editorial:”In case we have not fully wrung the blood out a horse that we flogged to death and later pushed it into a well without water and pelted it with stones, this edition is named…”
I don’t even know anyone personally at the USU office but their response was very poor.
I really wonder what the selection criteria is for the post of “In Unison” editor!!!
Is it a transparent process?
Are the Unitec students kept in the dark about the selection criteria for “In Unison” editor post and the qualifications and experience that are required for it?!!!
Is the USU really helping the international students studying at Unitec New Zealand or do they cleverly execute ulterior motives behind a facade?
Somewhere during this time, I also complained about the lack of power supply in my apartment as it was the turn of other inmates to buy the power card and activate power supply in my apartment. The accommodation manager Shirley Sullivan completely ignored this grievance of mine and I literally spent one week alone in my apartment without power supply and was not even able to cook food. The USU also completely ignored this grievance of mine and swept this issue under the carpet.
Here is the mail I had sent to Shirley Sullivan:
From: Mukesh Parthasarathy
Date: Wed, Feb 7, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Subject: message/post found inside my room today morning.
To: UNITEC Accommodation <accommodation@unitec.ac.nz>
Cc: lmaruthi@gw.unitec.ac.nz, Bharti Budhia <bbudhia@unitec.ac.nz>
Greetings Shirley,
I spent the whole night yesterday in the PG Lab as there was no power supply in my apartment.
Today morning I came back to my apartment at around 6:30am and there still was no power supply.
When I opened my room I found a mail/message.
I opened it and it has 2 pages which are stapled together.
Please find the mail as three attachments…
1. The envelope
2. The first page of the mail
3. The second page of the mail
Can you reply to confirm if this is from the accommodation office?
Thanks.
Mukesh.
—
What kind of relationship runs behind the scenes, underneath, between the accommodation manager and big shots of the USU office?
In fact, I had also complained about the theft of my summer accommodation contract to the accommodation manager Shirley Sullivan. She just sent a reply telling that my mail has been received but didn’t address my grievance or call me to her office to discuss the same.However the accommodation manager Shirley Sullivan turned up early morning after the BBQ day in front of my apartment and asked me to vacate immediately. When I asked her to come inside and sit and discuss with me my grievance, she got fidgety and immediately left the village in her car!!!Why did Shirley Sullivan refuse to discuss my grievance but still want me to vacate immediately?!!!
I think I managed to find accommodation a couple of days after the “stranger outside the window” incident. I found accommodation at YMCA the final night before my accommodation contract expired at Unitec without which I would literally be on the streets. I had to wait for 3-4 weeks till March first week when YMCA finally gave me an accommodation contract.
Here is the email from Shirley Sullivan providing me the reason for checking me out. I have also attached the word file letter as a jpeg here.
To: Mukesh Parthasarathy
Cc: Hamish Oakley <hoakley@gw.unitec.ac.nz>; Raewyn Castle <rcastle@gw.unitec.ac.nz>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 4:33:02 PM
Subject: Village Check out
Hi Mukesh
Please find attached the letter you requested
Kind Regards
Shirley
Shirley Sullivan
Accommodation Manager
Unitec Accommodation
Private Bag 92025
Auckland
NEW ZEALAND
Telephone (649) 815 4321 EXT 8940
Fax (649) 8153093
Mukesh.doc
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3. During the second semester in year 2006, the “In Unison” magazine carried a shocking article that a bomb was planted in the bushes alongside the Oakley creek somewhere near the bridge and waterfalls area. The article shocked one and all in Unitec and the article said that the explosion was so loud that it was even heard as far as near the skycity in Auckland Central. The bomb had exploded in early morning hours, I guess between 5:00-7:00 AM, and I thought to myself: “My God, that is the time zone when I return to my room via the Oakley creek from the PG research lab after working whole night!!!”. Iam the only person from Unitec village who returns from the PG lab via the Oakley creek during this time. So naturally I was curious about this incident and I enquired with the USU PG representative and he told me that the bomb was manufactured by two Unitec village residents who shared a top floor apartment with the then building 1510 Residential Assistant (RA). It seems, raids into their apartment showed Gun Powder being kept in the kitchen area.
I really wonder what kind of apartment inspection routines the accommodation manager Shirley Sullivan conducts in the village apartments?!!!
We all know that terrorists target high profile areas like important buildings etc. They do so in order to attract the attention of the government, media, and the public to their extremist demands.
Now why would these malicious elements plant a bomb at a deserted place like the Oakley creek area and what do they gain from it?
What is their motive? So why did they choose the Oakley creek?
Also how can these terrorists carry out the plot without local support? So are there any locals involved?
So how safe are international students inside the Unitec village?!!!
Oh, seems I drifted a lot from the BBQ day story!!! Excuse me for that but I can’t help but reflect…
Now continuing…
The day after I reported the “stranger outside the window” incident to the Unitec security and to the department management, I got a mail from the USU office reminding me that it was my last couple of days of stay at Unitec residential village and that I have to leave!!! Also they asked me if there was any other incident or news!!!
“Any other incident or news”?!!!
You mean, like the “stranger outside the window” incident?!!!
This time around, tell me, why I would want to trust you?!!!
