$10,000 late fee for missing mic’

by John Dobson

May 8, 2008

A MURDOCH UNIVERSITY journalism student breathed a sigh of relief this week, and will be allowed to graduate, after a $10,000 late fee for a microphone he loaned two years ago was wiped from his record.

As a university freshman, Ryan (now 24 – surname withheld), loaned a stereo mic’ from the uni in 2005. When he asked this week about loaning a camera, he was told he owed the uni $10,300.

The mic’ is worth about $400.

“I borrowed it for an assignment and had it for something like 900 days, and it worked about to be about $10 a day and ended up at over $10,000,” the now third-year student explained. “And if I didn’t find it I wouldn’t be able to graduate unless I paid the debt or bought a replacement worth $400, so I thought I’d do that.”

Luckily for Ryan, the university’s new loan policy had only just been implemented and the fine was waived. He later found the mic’ at his home.

“I did return it,” he said. “I found it in a box, but no-one contacted me asking: ‘where is the mic?’”

The staffer at the loans desk when Ryan dropped by this week was Daniel Chan, who said he’d never heard of such a large debt.

“I’ve never seen a debt that big, no,” Mr Chan said. “We have a new policy in place this semester.

“If it had been in place three years ago, he would have had to have paid the debt [but] he was responsible enough to return [the microphone].”