People entering the South Kensington campus over the past few days will have doubtless encountered the ring of steel of College security staff guarding all entrances to the college. The two day operation was apparently sparked by some kind of tip-off that animal rights protesters were expected to make some kind of protest, but nothing appears to have materialised.

In the meantime staff, students and bewildered-looking Freshers have been required to produce ID before entering any buildings on the edge of the campus. The operation could not really have been better timed, coinciding as it did with the influx of several thousand new students who did not have any kind of college identification. ?All I had was my IC Freshers handbook,? said one Fresher, ?apparently this and saying ?I?m starting a computing degree here today? is sufficient identification.?

College security appears to have been significantly stretched by the operation ? with even academic staff being drafted in to help guard the doors to some buildings. Despite supposedly being in force for all of Monday and Tuesday this week, everything seemed to crumble (perhaps intentionally) this afternoon for the Freshers? Fair, an event which doubtless made the task of securing the whole campus impossibly difficult anyway.