On the table, a hundred cups and saucers (arranged neatly, ten by ten). The university has pegged its hopes on this meeting, emailed the entire student body three times, plastered the campus with large, full-colour posters asking - begging - students to attend.

The meeting is an attempt on the part of administration to give students direct input into proposed campus redevelopments. The idea: have a cup of tea with members of the university's Strategy and Space Planning department, air your grievances, and put forward your vision for a better campus. As they tell us repeatedly, desperately, "We're listening."

I count three students. (Hannah and I don't count - we're student journos. We have to be here). Anne, who's in her fifties, is a mature-entry student who volunteers at the library. Gunter is an ageing hippy who's been drifting in and out of campus for the past thirty years. The final 'student', Angus, doesn't even attend the university.