Prime Minister John Key visited Victoria University last Wednesday for the opening of the new Alan MacDiarmid Building. Salient was not among those invited to the event.

Hopes of attending the ceremony anyway were thwarted by Campus Care Security officers, who were stationed at every entrance to the area.

Salient News Editor Molly McCarthy pretended to read The Dominion Post while monitoring the situation inconspicuously from a nearby couch.

By around 5.30pm the hallway space in front of Wishbone was filled with a crowd of around 60 important-looking people, who mixed, mingled and ate delicious-smelling nibbles.

“I think I saw the back of John Key’s head, and also Kerry Prendergast, maybe,” said a student spoken to by Salient.

Members of Key’s security squad were also spotted amongst the well-dressed crowd.