Interview with Richard Mackenzie

It’s about that time of year when we introduce you to some of the key faces about the place. One of the teams you’ll notice when you visit or live on campus are UNE Life Safety and Security. They wear bright blue shirts and patrol campus 24/7 as well as a few other places in town, such as the Teachers College and even some of the schools.

Join us for a moment so we can introduce you to one of the newer faces, Richard Mackenzie. He joined our team in February 2020 as a casual staff member, and has just recently become a full-time employee of our team. If you’ve been on campus for a while now, you might have seen Richard driving the Shuttle, it’s one of his usual gigs working security here.

Thanks for chatting with us Richard.

Tell us something you love about your job?

I’m a people person, so I love working in a team environment, and there are some great people in our crew. It’s also great getting to know the students, especially those that catch the shuttle bus on a regular basis.

I think my favourite part about the job is working alongside a great team, and communicating and helping others from all sorts of backgrounds.

Can you tell us a little about the Shuttle Bus service?

Sure, the Shuttle Bus runs every week Tuesday through to Saturday, from 6:30 pm till last pick up from UNE at 10:00 pm.

It’s a complementary service that we provide to the students (and sometimes staff) who need to get to town and/or return to campus. The Shuttle exists to ensure all of our students have a safe route home – and operates alongside the Be A Better Human Campaign/Respect Now Always. Usually, the people that catch it back to campus have jobs in town which typically tends to be hospitality jobs. Then from Thursday onwards, there are also students that have had gatherings in town, etc.

We can also be pretty busy around intensive school periods as we do a few other drop offs and pick-ups – ensuring students are safe at all times.

What does a regular day at work look like for you?

A regular day for me can be quite varied because our team work around the clock. So, it can be anything from basic foot patrol, driving the shuttle bus, or pick-ups, unlocking and locking University buildings on and off campus, checking, setting, and disabling alarms. Basically, ensuring everyone on campus is safe.

So, apparently you have a keen interest in horse racing and have gotten a few of the other team members interested in it too.

Haha, I’m not sure if they’re really interested, but they humour me with it. Outside of work I love rugby league and horse racing, it’s always been a very key part of my life. I also enjoy socialising with friends and family – the odd BBQ and dinner party are quite a nice weekend pass time too!

Whilst working for UNE Life what skills have you learned or developed that you didn’t expect?

I think overall, my computer skills have improved (maybe don’t let my kids see this, because they’ll disagree😉), I’ve had to learn a lot of new things with this job – which I enjoy!

Thanks so much for taking some time to chat with us Richard, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you a little better, and we will keep our eyes peeled for you about campus!

If you’re visiting our Armidale campus we would love you to download the UNE Safe App.
Or if you ever need security assistance on campus call 02 6773 2099 27/4.

We’re always on the hunt for great people to join our team – join our casual employee register today!