OPINION: Students Left Confused and Disoriented After Being Asked to Leave University

By Will Irvine

On May 1st, as we went to print on our most recent issue, Metservice issued an emergency “red” wind warning. The University immediately sprung into action, cancelling all classes and instructing students to leave most of the University’s buildings. As we watched from our delightfully heated Salient office, hundreds upon hundreds of students made the brave trek home through extreme winds, as buses filled up with huddled masses. 

Some students, though, feel that the University’s communication during the storm left something to be desired. After one student wrote in to Salient, expressing that they were blindsided by the rapid closing of the Kelburn Library (Rankine Brown Building), we decided to ask our social media following for their thoughts. One reader told us that the late release of a text was particularly frustrating, as not all students had access or were looking at email during the period -- “Absolutely useless, in my humble opinion”. Another told us that they “had to awkwardly tell my lecturer that we were closed”. 

The problem isn’t that the University didn’t provide spaces for students to go -- it did, most notably in Nga Mokopuna and The Bubble. But for many students, these announcements were not clearly communicated, especially by security staff in the library, who students say simply asked them to leave the building as soon as possible.

It’s also unclear why the library, clearly one of the University’s biggest and most populated buildings, was deemed unsafe for students. Many students, especially those who live in more remote suburbs with less clear bus routes, were forced to endure unsafe conditions that Metsafe explicitly advised against going out in. The question remains -- would students have been better off sheltering in place? And if so, why were they not given more guidance on how to?

The University has not yet responded to Salient’s request for comment, so this story will remain ongoing until we are able to fully understand what took place internally that day. Until then, stay tuned.