Critic Te Ārohi spent the past couple of weeks reviewing every hall of residence’s food — some with permission, but largely as undercover freshers. It went well for the most part, until News Editor Hugh and Features Editor Iris had their covers blown at Hayward, and Critic was put firmly in its place by Hayward Warden Amber Robertson. Read on as we spill the tea.
“On Friday evening, Iris and I were attempting the impossible: to knock off two halls in one go,” said Hugh. “Cumberland was good [...] a lot of security but we managed to sneak our way past it with a subtle flash of the media pass. Generally good cheer all around over there.”
They made their way over to Hayward afterwards, “feeling rather proud of ourselves, quite smug admittedly. We sauntered in, and this place is tiny — it’s like a hallway pretty much — so we’re getting looks pretty much straight away. But, you know, we’re not rookies at this point. We knew what we were dealing with.” The pair snagged a dinner of pizza and chips. “It was okay [...] good chips, but overall kinda meh.”
Hugh then spotted a friend of his, an RA who was an old workmate. “I told her what we were doing, let her in on the secret,” to which she apparently gave ‘team Critic vibes’. “So yeah, we were pretty happy with ourselves sitting down. But our biggest mistake was we sat alone in the middle of the room, attracting the glances of everyone.”
And it all went downhill from there. Critic was approached “like halfway through our meals” by the assistant warden asking who they were, to which we answered honestly. “He told us to sign out on the way out and he was kind of a pretty chill dude. Good vibes from him. But then it ramped up a bit when the warden came over maybe thirty seconds later, and she just kind of tore us a new one,” said Hugh.
Not only was Critic accused of unethical journalism and theft but later, in Hayward Warden Amber’s response to our media inquiry, with claims that we’d committed subterfuge. “Immediately after the attempts, the reaction was surprise and disappointment at the elements of subterfuge. We would expect reporters to be upfront and transparent with us before entering the premises and helping themselves to meals without prior arrangement or paying,” read her response. She then cited principle 9 of the New Zealand Media Council laws, something Critic Te Ārohi probably should have known about. It’s a pretty solid policy which suggests that information obtained by dishonest means is not permitted, unless there is an overriding public interest.
As they were confronted in the dining hall, Iris said that she tried to explain “in our policy […] to be able to review properly we needed to see what the freshers are getting, to be able to make it authentic and get a legitimate review of hall food. Not like, how well a hall hosts Critic, but how well do freshers eat on a random day?”
In response to Hayward’s claims of subterfuge, Iris said, “That’s bad in journalism unless there’s a legitimate reason, a justifiable reason. I think that, for the purpose of the review, that’s a justifiable reason.”
Looking back on the situation, Hugh acknowledged, “It was a bit of a shitty thing for us to do, but also, in the circumstances, we were being treated harsher than someone who would routinely sneak into another hall would.” He continued to argue that, “It’s a common thing which happens and if you’re a warden, I feel like you can acknowledge that it happens quite often [...] It wasn’t really making a dent, what we were doing.”
Hugh admitted, “I understand her frustrations, and it was good that she kind of stood up to defend the hall.” It did create “a bit of a scene [...] There were obviously already a few looks floated in our direction, but after she piped up we could feel all the eyes.”
“We sort of just got scared and ran off,” said Hugh. “Like, fair enough. But it is one of those things where, you know, we’re 20 years old and just doing fun things [in] the pursuit of journalism. It’s pretty harmless. I do understand, but pretty harmless I’d say.”
Iris and Hugh lamented that in their haste to get the fuck out of there, they “forgot to do the exact instructions that the assistant warden told us” of signing out and paying for their meals. Hayward responded “yes” to our questions over whether they would accept our apologies and offer of a bank transfer for the meals eaten, which Critic plans to do once we’re sent an account number. The hall will accept the delivery of Critic’s food issue containing the food review.