Suspended animation.

Craziness. Absolute craziness.

The meetings between the students and administration did not go to plan and the whole drama ended in the suspension of all the 1st and 2nd years – can you believe it? They were order to leave campus and if they want to continue their courses they’ll have to re-apply. I had a text from one of the students last night saying that he’d gone into hiding, isn’t that just so sad?

Its very difficult to get a straight story from anyone, there are allegations of intimidation on both sides which is not helping. The students won’t elect reps as they believe those people will be victimised by standing out, but those in charge won’t listen to the arguments from the students because there aren’t reps. Its vicious. Vicious enough that police were drafted in on Monday afternoon – not that they did anything, just stood about and looked officious! There was even a lone solider with a gun…goodness me. Ali and I found it quite funny, we dashed round the corridors trying to get a glimpse but when we did catch up with him, he was perched on a wall, swinging his legs and bashing his boots into the bricks - all rather disappointing.

What has annoyed us most about the whole thing though is that, once again, it’s the poor damn patients that lose out. The hospital is now again completely understaffed, the 3rd years thankfully are helping out for now (they all decided not to get involved in the whole business) but they’re due to disappear soon to sit their final exams.

We phoned VSO just to let them know what had happened and you know what they said? ‘Well, don’t just sit at home not doing anything’. Grrrrrr.