St Mary's College: Open letter to Bishop Moth

Dear Bishop Moth,

I am writing to express my concerns over the latest official statement written by yourself and posted on simmspace yesterday, which served only to fuel the desire in many students to continue to protest against the poor treatment of our University, staff and of course us. I was one of the many protesters involved in the silent vigil on Thursday (perhaps you would have known this had you taken the opportunity to actually talk to the concerned and distressed students rather than take the back exit and shun us completely). I have also been very active in campaigning against this merger and ultimately senior management and my reason is quite a simple one, a Peguy so eloquently put it "He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers".

You wrote in your statement that the Governors "expressed regret over the actions of certain individuals" I am compelled to ask exactly which actions these were? I for one took part in a respectful and perfectly civilized silent vigil that demonstrated how committed the students are to this opposition, these students gave up five hours of their time and deserve far more than what they received which included being lied to by security (thus proving once more how elusive the truth appears to be at St. Mary's) and completely ignored by the vast majority of the board members (again, proving what non entities students appear to be at St. Mary's University).

The words 'misinformation' and 'distorted' have been thrown in our direction which I believe is grossly unfair, my intital reaction was very much along the lines of refusing to dignify this with a response. Upon much reflection I concluded that if this is indeed the line the Governors wish to take, then what I would say is that if we are in fact misinforming and relaying distorted information then perhaps we are reflecting the behaviour we have been subjected to. After all, I would suggest that misinformation does nothing but spawn further misinformation so ultimately it all stems from the same problem - the fundamental lack of respect for staff and students and total lack of consultation. However, I am very happy with the knowledge that our protest, our voice (misinformed or not) is reaching as far as America and Canada...... http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/morning-briefing-817 it goes to show if you shout loudly enough your voice really will be heard.

There was one line in this official statement that I agreed with completely and I would love to share this with you "St. Mary's is blessed to have commited and highly effective staff" - well, for the moment anyway. You have summed up beautifully why the students are lobbying so very diligently. We are aware of just how wonderful our staff are, both present and currently missing, and we will campaign tirelessly to see they are treated in a just and respectful manner. Thankfully, most students will see through ill thought out attempts to besmirch and belittle particular individuals as we truly believe with all our hearts that our lecturers have, and always have had, our best interests at heart: us the students, the fee paying stakeholders of the University. It is a blessed relief to know there are people who do value us and our leading role within the University and care about our future - something senior management so clearly have no interest in what so ever. We will stand by our School, our staff and each other and continue to protest until we have exhausted every possible official channel which we have every right to utilize. We will not give up, I would like to leave you with a quote that I think is incredibly poignant right now....

"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelivable. Hope means hoping when everything else seems lost"
- G. K Chesterton.

St Mary's student - name and address withheld