By Zach Hosseini

Well, I promised myself that I wasn’t gonna go negative. But like all the Democratic candidates, the gettin’ just got too good. However, before we get into my lambasting of certain, shall we say less-than-worthless Northeastern authoritative perpetrators, let me preface this ensuing story by explaining that an experience I had at this university disgusted me so much that I had to write about it in this space. It’s not meant to be a personal attack at the knobhead who somehow collects a check every week at this university, but instead it should be seen as me trying to shine a light in a dark place.

This anecdote is about two things: unaccountability and the failure by a certain staff member to set a proper tone on campus. While by and large most staff here is certainly adequate, this one failure I just can’t get over this one and move on without commenting about it. (That’s why I have a column people.)

So here’s the dish, I play on an intramural basketball team. In our first game a certain self-ordained consequential Marino Center administrator comes up to my team and does the only thing he knows how to: bark. Sure his yip included some rules, but for the most part his tone was there to intimidate, trying to establish authority/subordinate roles. It was just plain excessive. He delivered his words with a disgusting attitude. I would like to say that he talked to us like children, but that would be letting him off the hook way too easy. So, that’s the tone this guy set. Making sure he let us know who was in charge. An idea eerily similar to dog obedience school.

He treated us suspiciously, like we had some vested interest in breaking, stealing, marauding or hurting. But nevertheless, he talked the only way he knew, forcefully and macho. But it doesn’t stop there. Throughout the game, I took issue with certain things. But rather than talking to me like an adult, our hero just preferred to stare me down, and when I disagreed with certain things, he yelled things like “Hey, watch it,” and garbage like that. Again, he’s trying to set that tone that’ll let me know he’s got a foot on my throat whenever he’d like.

Yeah, there are rules; I swore some, was a little mean at times and was a poor sport. But again, the attitude set here was one that reminded everyone on the court that he was the adult and I was child. His rules held me to the standards of adulthood, but his condescension was rife with the demands of me being an obedient child.

When that bespectacled neanderthal came over to my team and yapped in his deep voice that puberty oh-so-thankfully blessed him with, I had a flashback. I remembered my days in a cramped suit and tie, suffering through years at my parochial high school. Now, I’m not saying everything there was bad, I got a great education and all. But what sucked, sucked, sucked was how on the brochures they would tout the school as some groomer of young men, who would become the individuals to lead us into the blah, blah, blah. But the real teaching technique they employed was the mastery of intimidation and put-downs which hid behind the auspices of, ahem, discipline. Yeah, I chose to go there, and I got more good than bad, but after leaving it, I realized that attitude has very little place in this modern world and is certainly not wanted at this university — at least I hope not.

There’s no room for the nonchalance towards respect that that gentlemen treated my teammates and I with. Not at my university.

Northeastern sends us out into the real world to understand what the workplace is like. They want us to understand what it’s like to be accountable. Ah, there’s that word again.

Just on that morning before the game, I was walking down Huntington Avenue and thinking to myself that I actually love Northeastern. That after three years, I believe in what this place is trying to do and where it’s going. I talk to anyone who listens on the T about how the co-op makes sense.

This is not a personal attack on that guy; those don’t belong in the newspaper. I am accountable to what I write. In the end, even if you think I’m a sniveling brat, I’ll listen. (As a service to my editor, we’re always looking for commentaries). However, an apology will be in order before I listen to the hypocrite wearing that university issued shirt with the Northeastern emblem on his chest, because behind it, he’s nothing but a naked coward.

— Zach Hosseini can be reached at [email protected].