Simon Baker - Voice of Reason
Everything seemed fairly quiet on the medical front a few weeks ago. The BMS was rising majestically and on schedule (after a fashion), and little had been heard from St Mary’s. Then news came of a deal struck by the medics to secure direct funding from College to the tune of Ł80,000 per year. This will indeed further alienate the medical students within the body of IC, but that is precisely what they want.
To describe the merger of St Mary’s, Charing Cross, NHLI and Royal Postgraduate medical schools as a shotgun wedding doesn’t even come close to the mark. For anyone new to the South Ken campus, let me explain the gist of recent events. Mary’s do not like Imperial, and dislike being reminded of the fact they themselves have been part of IC since 1988. Imperial do not like Mary’s. Mary’s do not wish to merge with the other medical schools, and they in turn want nothing to do with Mary’s IC, or each other. In short, this is tribal warfare. Since no one likes anyone else in this shambles, College senior management, playing the Cupid role, are bending over backwards to accommodate this special interest body of students and make the marriage work. The ICSMU, smaller than the RCS, will get as much funding as all the current unions put together. The BMS has provision for social space, a feature that is somewhat sparse in every other department. This again will allow the medics to remain in their shiny new building without the need to fraternise. The only time we will see them is on a Friday night in the Union and Southside, and God help the consequences.
For reasons best known to themselves, medics are a fiercely independent bunch the world over. They are very big on their identity, which is why they feel they have everything to lose from this merger. They resent interference and intrusion by outsiders, a point that was made all too clear to me and other IC students last year when attending lectures at Mary’s. An explanation of this somewhat fanatical behaviour was offered by one of the pharmacology lecturers, who suggested it was a school in every sense of the word, with greater cosseting of the students the result being that, in his words, the equivalent age group at IC were more mature. This hostility towards IC extends to the very highest levels of the medical schools. In St Mary’s magazine, there have been letters of complaint from all and sundry, culminating in an open letter to the Queen Mother. The only thing that unites them all is that they don’t want to be united.
As days go by, this is looking more and more like empire building by IC. Forget the cost and to hell with the consequences. The BMS building amazingly manages to fill every available square inch, preventing expansion by anyone else, clear evidence that it was built on the basis of getting the largest building that the planners will allow- stick it up, then think what to do with it. Only the Biology department have, to date, supplied plans of what facilities are needed. Even by IC standards, this ain’t good.
As you would imagine on a job of this size, there will be penalty payments for late completion. Very sensible you say. Oh dear. The penalty payments are Ł21,000 per day late. Not to be paid by Schal to us, mind. Oh no, this will be paid to the Treasury by IC. The bloke that came up with that stunning deal was probably headhunted from the British Library project. It will, therefore, open on time.With the integration of Charing Cross and the others likely to be as shambolic as Mary’s, prepare for much more chaos. This, as someone once said, is going to run and run.
