ATHENS – Getting nowhere in complaints to police and the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA, the senate of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) decided to close for a day to protest runaway drug dealing on the street next to its campus, in full view in broad daylight.

“With a sense of responsibility and expressing the anxiety of the university community, and in order to defend the right to safety and hygienic conditions, the senate decided to symbolically suspend the operation of the undergraduate programs of the institution on Wednesday, (Oct. 24) in order to mobilize the state bodies responsible for the immediate and permanent removal of traffickers and drug users from the areas and streets adjacent to the University,” the senate said in a press release.

School officials have have repeatedly complained to authorities, to no avail, that Antoniadou Street turned into a gathering spot for drug dealers and users, posing a risk to the health and security of students and staff and that nothing’s been done about it.

The school’s pleas, laments, and complaints have been ignore, leading student groups to collect around 900 signatures in a petition over the issue with critics saying the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA is soft on crime and mollycoddles drug users and dealers in a bid to appeal to its extremist fringes.