Ryan Cleland

Salient has been a driving force on campus since 1938, and has become a fixture of student life. From infamously helping collect VUWSA funds for both the Viet Cong and South Vietnam in 1972, to setting up the somehow more controversial “Lundy 500” in 2009 where teams of vehicles travelled from Petone to Palmerston North in an attempt to recreate Mark Lundy’s alleged timeline of the infamous Lundy murders, Salient has had its fair share of tumultuous history. Throughout that time, we’ve always...

For years, researchers at Te Herenga Waka, wanting to study depression in rats, could dunk them in a tank of water and watch how long they struggled before giving up. The Porsolt Swim Test (PST)—also called the forced swim test—was a standard tool in preclinical drug research for decades. Now, the University has made its position explicit: it won't approve the procedure anymore. VUW’s Animal Ethics Committee updated its website to formally reflect what had already become practice in the lab,...

For years, researchers at Te Herenga Waka, wanting to study depression in rats, could dunk them in a tank of water and watch how long they struggled before giving up. The Porsolt Swim Test (PST)—also called the forced swim test—was a standard tool in preclinical drug research for decades. Now, the University has made its position explicit: it won't approve the procedure anymore. VUW’s Animal Ethics Committee updated its website to formally reflect what had already become practice in the lab,...