AS if there weren’t enough trouble at the ANU’s  School of Music, news is to hand of what Head of School Peter Tregear calls “wilful damage occurring in the School of Music building after hours, particularly to signage.”

In a letter to staff and students Dr Tregear has announced, “I have no option but to close the building outside normal business hours.”

He said the building would  continue to be shut early (when not in use for public concerts such as tonight by the Tokyo String Quartet) until further notice.

“Access to the building after hours, and use of its facilities, is a privilege, not a right,” he wrote. “As Head of School, I have a particular responsibility to be reasonably assured that such activity will cease.”

Normally the music precinct is a hub of creative music-making and practice day and night, so this  is, some staffers are saying, a sign that all is not well.