Library staff BINNED fresher’s coursework as he left desk to get coffee

An unlucky fresher found out the hard way not to leave his belongings unattended when library staff threw his notes away. 

Geography first year Luke Shalom returned from a quick 3am trip to MacDonald’s to find his essay notes, paper pad and pencil case had been chucked in the bin.

Luke was then forced to fish through the bins to salvage what was left of his notes.

He was working on an essay that was fifty per cent of a module.

He told us: “I’d only left my desk for 10 minutes or so to get a coffee.

When I got back the the member of staff had binned all my essay notes, my paper pad and my pencil case”.

Bungling staff at Newcastle Uni are currently on a mad one and are trying to catch out “desk-hoggers”.

Luke said: “All the other desks were empty, I thought I could chance the rule”.

He says that upon returning from his break, he was confused as he wasn’t able to find his seat or notes. “I even wondered if I was on the wrong floor”.

Luke then noticed a staff member in the corner of level four: “I approached her and asked if she had seen my notes. I thought she might know where they had gone.

“She told me she thought they were rubbish and had put them in the bin. She binned all my essay notes, my paper pad and my pencil case”.

The unlucky geographer then had to dig through the bins to rescue his work.

The scene of the crime

Luke blames the “ratio of students to desks standing at about 100:1” and says: “perhaps library staff thought that this had previously been too lenient on ‘Desk Scalpers’, and as a result belongings are now simply thrown into the nearest bin”.

Luke says “maybe they think we’ll reconsider our actions once we’re trawling through banana skins to recover our crumpled and torn notes”.

The Robinson has implemented measures to cut down on desk-hogging with the “15-minute rule”, where after an extended absence, offenders have their belongings removed from the unoccupied desk and taken to reception to be collected.

This is because not all Robbo-revellers practice proper desk etiquette, with an increasing number of scoundrels choosing to occupy a desk, but instead spend their time “catching up” in the cafe.