Microwave wars
A set of microwaves on the Albany campus has sparked off an ongoing conflict between ASA executive rebels and the imperial Massey Health and Safety team. This is potentially the biggest drama of the year, and yes we’re counting the resignation of half the Distance Exec.
ASA Welfare Officer Amy Wang has been attempting to address the issue of unhygienic microwaves in the Albany campus library. Attached signs told students to clean up after themselves but the nearly impossible instruction was made more impossible with no cleaning products provided for the task.
Cleaning products were eventually procured by the library, but this has only consisted of spray bottles without anything to wipe with. Amy says, “I saw two spray bottles there, but there is no paper towels or cloths? How do you expect students to clean it? Michaela just took two rolls of paper towels from ASA to leave on the microwave, but not long after, the paper towels were gone. I don’t know who took them, but they’re gone.”
Amy told the Campus Operations Manager through email that even with meagre cleaning supplies provided, students realistically still won’t clean up after themselves, even though she agreed with Massey it should be their responsibility in an ideal world.
“Obviously, we can’t count on students to maintain a sanitary condition,” she said.
She attempted to get the Massey Health and Safety team to act by suggesting at their last monthly meeting a Massey cleaner could add cleaning the microwaves to their rotation of work.
Soon after the meeting, she said she was approached by a staff member who told her they didn’t want the issue on their meeting minutes because the issue was not for health and safety, it was for the operations team.
“I said ‘no, it can be very serious. Even one bacteria in the microwave can kill a person straight away.’ He said it wasn’t that serious, but if anything happens, then it is going to be too late.”
She attempted to ask if there was any department that could clean the microwaves once a week, but the staff member dismissed the suggestion and said it would cost too much money.
“I just asked how hard is it to add on cleaning a microwave to a cleaner’s job for a couple of minutes a week? He asked me, ‘How hard is it to get students clean the microwave for ten seconds?’ We stick the note on the microwave, but we can’t 100% guarantee that students will clean the microwave, but if we ask paid staff to do it, this job will definitely be done.”
She said she found the staff members general tone and attitude toward her to be mean and offensive. “The reason we are on that board is to represent the student voice. But they want us to shut up.”
A back-and-forth correspondence between Amy and various Massey representatives about the microwaves first began on 25 January of this year. During communications with Massey staff, it sometimes took up to two weeks for Amy to get a response.
“First time I brought up this issue was January. We are now in the middle of May. I just feel so disappointed and frustrated. We represent the student voice, but no one is listening to us.”
She said the issue even extends much further back than even these emails show, sharing with Massive pictures she took as far back as October last year demonstrating how messy the microwaves were. She said she knew the microwaves had been there for at least three years. Massive speculates it is possible they have not been cleaned at all during that time.
Two of the microwaves in the library were not working properly either. Operations notified her they were aware of the microwaves that weren’t working and would soon fix the problem. Six days later they emailed to say the issue of one microwave not working has been “resolved”. The resolution involved removing the broken microwave and presumably throwing it out, without a replacement.
“I don’t know what happened to that microwave. Have they taken it to fix? Are they going to provide a new one? I don’t know,” she said.
The most recent email sent to Amy by Campus Operations Manager John Shimwell, sent on 20 April, suggests a review of the situation at the end of Semester One to “see how things are going”. Lol.