Gates at night

No, this isn't anything to do with a certain CEO of a shady company in Redmond, WA. I'm writing this to express my mystification of the gates at Monash.

I work at Monash University (Australia's largest University :-), and each night at some late hour (perhaps it is 12:30pm or 1am), security locks the north-west and north-east exits with big iron gates.

The mystery to me is -- why? In earlier days, there was a gatehouse at the major exit[1] for Monash, and so I postulated that perhaps the gates were shut to ensure that any criminal perpetrator would be observed exiting from the main gate, and could be stopped if necessary (there were even the necessary boom gates, IIRC).

But, most likely in an effort to cut costs, the little gatehouse has gone (though her name lives on, much to our chargin, see the link for the story). So now we have no gatehouse, and no real means of stopping people from exiting, or even easily observing their exit (perhaps there are cameras around, we certainly have enough of them).

And yet, every evening and each weekend, and especially on public holidays, the northern gates are securely fastened to protect us from the approach of the barbarians who must surely live in that direction. Maybe one day I'll mail Glenn and ask him why...

1: Exit, ok?! -- I know people who've been trying to leave for years, but no-one who has been trying to get in for years :p