Which got everyone on to discussing the Faculty Bored meeting of the day before. The DVC present had, in the absence of Questions To The Executive, chosen to address the question of security on Campus in the wake of the recent attack on Prof Caira.
It appeared, from the DVC's address, that Bremner believed Upper Campus was all a-quiver with fear and trepidation, with large-eyed staff sitting behind bolted office doors demanding a phalanx of muscular Campus Control staff to be present before they unlocked the door to admit a student for consultation. Which, quite possibly, demonstrated when last a DVC had ventured onto Real Campus, or perhaps, where they might have ventured.
However, what was being discussed was not so much the DVC's remarks themselves, as the answer he gave to the question he was asked about the Stop-and-Search policy. And whether the security staff should adopt a statistical or a sociological approach were they to resuscitate such a programme.
A statistical approach, argued Dr Green, would rely on randomisation - every, say, fifteenth person would be stopped and searched irrespective of who or what they were. And everyone would know they had a one in fifteen chance of being stopped and searched, and would live with it.
A sociological approach would, Prof Ritalin argued, rely on the fact that poorer people were more likely to commit crimes of theft or robbery, and black people would be more likely to be poor, and thus black people - particularly those who looked scruffier or less affluent - should thus be targeted for stopping and searching. The Upper Middle Class wouldn't get stopped, as the chances of their involvement in theft or robbery - as opposed to fraud, say - would be less.
In the outraged pandemonium that ensued, Prof Ritalin dug himself ever deeper into it, by declaring Upper Middle Class appearance to be based on confidence rather than conspicuous evidence of wealth, and equating it with "a good aura". For a while, it seemed that another assault on Campus was inevitable, but slowly the temperature dropped and people trickled back to their offices, closing the doors firmly behind them.
Fear and trepidation lurking behind the closed office doors? Not a bit of it - just the usual cordiality and collegiality which characterises Upper Campus life.