Project 2067: comments on the Dead Professor

Sent in by Fuzzy

For what it's worth, I was a student at the University of Adelaide (as
it's officially named) from 1984 to 1988 (thereby showing my age). I
was not, however, a humanities student, so I can't verify any details
about the English department...

I'll intersperse my own comments, for what it's worth...

A female student taking English at Adelaide University (Australia) was finishing off an assignment that had a dead line of 12 o'clock that night.

Seems a mite unusual. A professor sets a deadline of midnight, but
doesn't actually watch over the "completion boxes" to notice those who
hand in late?

The 'assignment completion box' was outside the English Department on the 6th floor of a building called the Napier Block.

The English department is, indeed, on the 5th and 6th floors (6th and
7th floors for USAnians) of the Napier building (which I believe is
often called "the Napier block" by its inhabitants). See, eg.,
http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/humanities/english/
I have no idea whether the English department has "assignment
completion boxes", but every department I studied in had them, so I
wouldn't be at all surprised.

While the girl was waiting for the lift to take her up to the 6th floor, she felt increasingly uneasy.

The lifts in the Napier building are notoriously slow. After handing in her assignment, the student pressed the button to call the lift.

Erm... most "lift algorithms" don't work this way, particularly not in
a cash-strapped university building. The lift is more likely to just
stay on the floor it last travelled to, until it's next called (whence
it would travel to the calling floor). It might close its doors, but
it's unlikely to move.

In which case, why weren't most lifts already on the ground floor?
Let's face it, they would have most recently been used by escapees.
However, I don't know for sure how lifts in the Napier building behave,
so this is still possible.

Just as the lift doors opened, a professor came out of the room at the end of the corridor and turned the lights out. When he saw the lift doors open, he ran down the
corridor to catch the lift. The student saw him coming, and feeling scared, quickly closed the lifts doors shouting out "sorry you will have to take the next one". She knew it was silly, but the girl felt very vulnerable and uneasy about the whole situation.

Again, unlikely. The English department isn't overly huge (following
links from the above page, I see four genuine professors, and ten other
academic staff who might be called "professors", even though they're
technically not). The girl is quite likely to recognise the staff
member, particularly since it's winter (raining and cold), which means
it's halfway through the academic year. Even a first-year student
would know most of the faculty by then, at least by sight.
-- Incidentally, an early version of this UL (at http://www.paranormalaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1005&sid=2fb...
describes how empty the building was by claiming:
Even the cleaners exited the elevators to go home as the student got into them.

and then claims that the body: was found by one of the cleaners in the morning.

Zealous cleaners, to "do" the building last thing at night *and* first
thing in the morning, no?
The story is repeated at http://www.gigfoot.net/lol/legends/593.html
However, the most my local knowledge -- such as it is -- can do is
throw cold water on the UL (ahem). Nothing described in this legend is
directly contradicted by reality.