When late calligrapher and poet Pan Shou called for NTU to be renamed simply as Nanyang University in 1998, he saw it as a way to “quieten the hearts of many”, reflecting a desire among some Nantah alumni to see the old name of their alma mater brought back.

The remark was made in Mr Pan’s acceptance speech for an honorary degree to recognize his contributions to the arts in Singapore, and to Nantah, which he served as the first General Secretary in its early days.

However, on the same day, both then NTU president Cham Tao Soon and the then Education Minister Teo Chee Hean present at the ceremony told reporters that they saw no need for a name change. They felt that NTU was a name already well-known in the world, and the word “technological” reflected its strength and focus well.

Mr Pan passed away a year later, before he could see current NTU president Su Guanning express plans to drop the “T” in NTU by 2005.

Shortly after taking office in 2003, Dr Su had mentioned in an interview with the Straits Times of his desire to revive the “fighting spirit” in the founding of Nantah by adopting its name.

Yet, in a dramatic turn of events, Dr Su announced a year later that he would put the renaming on hold until NTU becomes a full-fledged, comprehensive university. The matter has not been brought up again.

History of Nantah

Nanyang University, or Nantah, was established in 1955 and merged with the University of Singapore (SU) in 1980 to form the National University of Singapore (NUS).

However, most Nantah alumni saw it as a forced closure of their alma mater. The bitterness ran deep, as the 12,000 Nantah graduates felt marginalised by a society that did not recognize their degrees. Many of them were unable to find jobs, or were given little pay compared to SU graduates.

In addition, Nantah was built using donations from Chinese from all walks of life – including trishaw riders, cabaret girls and washerwomen – to realise a dream of setting up a Chinese university in Singapore. This added to the deep sense of loss Nantah alumni felt when they saw an English medium technological institution set up where their mother school used to be.

Nanyang Technological Institute, which opened on the former Nantah campus in 1981, was expanded to become Nanyang Technological University 10 years later.

Proposed name change stirs alumni

The proposal to drop the “T” by Dr Su Guanning was endorsed by Mr R. Sinnakarupan, president of the then 75,000-member NTU Alumni Club. For more than a year since January 2003, news in the media reported only NTU’s steps in pushing towards reviving Nantah, setting 2005 as the target date.

Yet, it was not mentioned that there were dissenting voices from various alumni, who took to the Internet to voice their objection.

A Nantah graduate, who currently resides in Canada, conducted an online straw poll of 50 alumni, of which all but one saw NTU as a separate entity from Nantah and not a resurrection of the former Chinese university.

The pollster, Dr Choo Eng Ung, also posted a declaration online with three other alumni to state that there is “only one real history of Nanyang University” – that it was shut down in 1980 and has ceased to exist.

The declaration, supported by 72 Nantah alumni, sought to “stop NTU from using the exact name ‘Nanyang University’”, in order to “protect and preserve the integrity of the true legendary history of our alma mater Nanyang University”.

Various Nantah graduates interviewed by the Enquirer, like Mr Chong Wing Hong, echoed the views of the online voices. “Most alumni, including me, see Nanyang University as having officially ceased to exist at age 25,” Mr. Chong said.

“A group of alumni thought that NTU should be ‘linked’ with Nanyang University. But Dr Su tried it, and it didn’t work out,” added the senior writer for Lianhe Zaobao.

“NTU is a new and independent university,” said Mr Tan Hock Lay, another Nantah alumnus. “The cultural, social and academic environment of NTU and Nantah are also largely different, so there is no point in bringing up a name change.”

Another objection to using the name Nanyang University was its historical baggage and the possibility of rekindling old grievances Nantah alumni experienced during the “forced closure”, said Mr Chong, the senior writer for Lianhe Zaobao.

This sentiment is reflected by another alumnus, who wished to remain anonymous. He and his Nantah schoolmates were so unhappy being viewed as NTU Alumni that they “tore up NTU letters asking for donations every year”.

“There is no harm continuing using the name ‘Nanyang Technological University’,” said Mr Chong. “The Massachusetts University in the USA is still called Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yet it has a strong humanities and social sciences faculty, and has produced many excellent graduates. To change the name is not an issue.”

President of Nanyang University Alumni Academic Society, Dr. Choong Chow Siong, admitted that he was among the minority of Nantah graduates who also sees himself as an alumnus of NTU.

“There are two types of alumni of NTU – those who graduated from the university itself, the other established under the legislation,” Dr Choong said. Under a parliamentary act in 1995, the Nantah alumni rolls were transferred from NUS to NTU.

“Everyone has already deep set perception about what happened,” said Dr Choong, referring to those Nantah alumni who do not share his outlook as a dual alumnus of Nantah and NTU. “There is no need to actively push for a change in view, because it would be a 180-degrees change, one that is not easy to achieve.”

As for the continued possibility of a name change, Dr Choong said it is an important decision that should be made by stakeholders of NTU and Nantah together.

Name change shelved, for now

In July 2004, Dr Su suddenly announced a change of plan, saying renaming would come only after NTU becomes a full-fledged varsity. The move was backed by then Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan. This time, there was no timeline.

It was unclear whether objections from various Nantah alumni were the cause of what happened. Yet, six years after Dr Su’s proposed name change, it seems as if renaming NTU has already dropped off the radar.

During a global reunion of Nantah graduates in Beijing on 17 October last year, a discussion found that while reviving the “Nantah spirit” continues to be among hopes of alumni, the option of renaming NTU is no longer within consideration.

More importantly, NTU Provost Bertil Andersson said in an interview with The Enquirer that NTU would retain its technological focus, a theme that fit well with what Dr Su said during his speech at NTU’s 2006 convocation.

“Prime Minister Lee asked if we aspire to be Harvard or MIT. You will not be surprised that the answer is MIT,” Prof Su said as he addressed the freshly minted NTU graduates. “Among the three public universities in Singapore, we are the only science and technology university approximating MIT, whose excellence we want to emulate.”

When pressed for a response on the renaming issue, the university replied with “no comments”, and The Enquirer has been unable to get a response from Dr Su himself thus far.

Perhaps Mr Pan Shou’s wish may never be realized, but it appears a sizeable group of Nantah alumni — who do not want Nantah’s name to be used for what they feel is an unrelated entity — want to keep it that way.

With engineering at its core, NTU should be the university with exciting interfaces between different disciplines rather than follow a comprehensive model like Harvard or Berkeley said NTU Provost Bertil Andersson.

“There’s a lot of new knowledge today and what students require is inter-disciplinarity,” he told the Enquirer in a recent interview.

“No one wants to be just an engineer; no one wants to be just a scientist. Young people today want to have a broader base; they want to look at the totality and to understand more things.”

And NTU’s strength lies in its ability to be a university “based upon engineering and science, but having these interfaces”.

For example, combining engineering with biology creates new devices and biomaterial while engineering with business is “very important for the industry”, Prof Andersson explained.

About half of the current university undergraduate population are engineering students, and the university has marketed itself as one which offers a well-rounded global education with a distinctive edge in science and technology, according to its website.

In a speech at NTU’s 50th anniversary celebration four years ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong challenged NTU to choose between the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) model.

“Both are outstanding institutions. But whereas Harvard is strong in all disciplines, MIT builds its reputation on its Science and Engineering schools, even though its Humanities and Social Sciences departments are world class,” PM Lee said. “NTU has to choose between these two models. You can aspire to be either like Harvard or MIT, but you cannot aspire to be both.”

If NTU were to become the MIT of the East, its name should stick added Prof Andersson, using the Ivy League in the United States as a comparison.

“If you look at the Nobel prizes in the last 50 years after World War II, which universities have the most Nobel prizes?” said Prof Andersson, currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nobel Foundation.

“It’s Harvard – it’s a comprehensive university. No 2 is Berkeley, it’s a comprehensive university. And No 3 is Oxford, Cambridge, also comprehensive.”

However, in the last 15 years MIT, Stanford and Caltech are first, second and third respectively with Harvard ninth on the list, he said to prove his point.

“Many of these universities have a “T” in their names. MIT is not just engineering; it also has humanities, so it’s also an interdisciplinary university but the engineering is in the center,” said Prof Andersson, adding that comprehensive universities may be too diluted to really concentrate on their research efforts.

Hence there’s no reason for NTU to drop the “T” from its name. “The ‘N’ is for Nanyang, the ‘T’ is for Technological, the ‘U’ is for University – I think everyone has its share,” he said. “And then the ‘T’ stands for the core of the university.”

To rid herself of the Monday blues, Ms Lyn Yip treats herself to brunch at Dempsey’s Barracks before attending contract law class. On Wednesday evening, the twenty-year-old undergraduate parties with her friends, drinking—$200 each—bottles of Moët & Chandon. To prepare for the weekend, she squeezes in a manicure and pedicure in between tutorials on Friday.

By the end of the week, she has spent almost $1,000. All expenses paid by her father, thanks to her supplementary card.

Ms Yip is one of an increasing number of youths who lead extravagant lifestyles because they have a supplementary credit card. Such cards offer credit limits of up to $60,000 depending on the main card holder income. And some parents allow their children to spend as much as they please.

“I guess I don’t realise how much I spend because all I have to do is swipe my card and the deal’s done,” she said. “But in my opinion, as long as I don’t go overboard, life’s too short and we might as well make the most of it,” Ms Yip said.

Her father, businessman Mr Yip Chee Hong, does not find her spending an issue. “I don’t mind that my daughter spends a bit of my money, as long as she does not take it for granted,” the 54-year-old said.

With the convenience of a supplementary card, some youths are also taking full advantage of online shopping. Take undergraduate Ms Charmaine Ong who spends much of her free time on online shopping websites such as net-a-porter.com and chickdowntown.com.

With just a few clicks of the mouse, the twenty-year-old adds a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti boots, a 3.1 Phillip Lim dress and a Luella bag to her shopping basket. At the checkout, the three items cost a total of £926 ($2,070).

“It’s a reasonable amount to pay. The three items had a 50% discount, something the local boutiques would never have. Or sometimes, they aren’t available in Singapore,” she said.

For the recent holiday season, undergraduate Ms Meaghan See prepared for parties by hitting Orchard Road. She went to boutiques and high-end shops to find a dress to wear for each lunch or dinner party. By Christmas Eve, after spending $800 on her supplementary card, she had three new frocks to choose from.

“At these functions, it is important that no one wears the same dress. So I can’t just go to the usual shopping spots like Topshop or Forever 21 or Guess,” the twenty-year old said. “But I always show my mum what I buy, to make sure she’s okay with it. If not, I’ll go back to the shop and do an exchange.”

Despite what many consider a large sum of money to be spent on material goods and food, these youths are well aware of how much they spend. Often, they come from well-to-do families with their own businesses and have planned on taking over. Those interviewed for this story are currently majoring in degrees such as law, business and economics.

When asked whether they could afford such lifestyles once they are financially independent, both Ms Yip and Ms Ong were confident that they could maintain their current spending habits.

“I’m not reckless in my spending. I know my limits. I know how to judge whether it is worth to pay $500 for a pair of shoes or not,” Ms Yip said.

Ms Ong added that not all of the luxury goods that she purchases are paid by her father, nor does she expect her father to agree with her on the amount that she spends on certain items.

“For the past six months, I’ve been saving up to pay for my 21st birthday party. I am aware that to have a party of 40 people at a fine dining French restaurant will cost almost $10,000, so I’m prepared to pay most of the cost,” she said.

Since July 2006, banks have been issuing supplementary credit cards to those aged 18 and over – down from the previous minimum age of 21. For banks, this has allowed them to reach out to a previously untapped customer base.

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Credit and Charge Card statistics, there has been an 11 percent increase in the number of supplementary cards from 2006 to 2008.

Some parents believe supplementary cards will give their children the experience of handling finances before qualifying for their own credit card. But others are aware of the possibility of overspending.

Marketing director William Fong, 55, said: “If my daughter goes over the agreed limit of $500 a month, I’ll just take the card away for good.”

Ms Stephanie Fong, 21, an undergraduate, has a supplementary card but does not swipe the card unnecessarily. She only uses the card to pay for school-related purchases such as buying a laptop, paying fees or when she needs an advance for her allowance.

“I’d rather pay for the things that I buy, rather than have my dad question what I spend his money on when he gets the bill at the end of the month.”

For someone who is critical of the government for being deaf to its citizen’s opinions, especially in the past, the leader of Singapore’s largest opposition political party, The Workers’ Party (WP), is ironically half-deaf himself.

As Mr Low Thia Khiang puts on his hearing aids at the start of the interview, the 52-year-old said he lost 50 per cent of high frequency hearing in both ears probably from not wearing earplugs at the shooting range during his National Service when he served as an instructor.

The severity of the problem did not hit Mr Low until he realised he could not hear during Parliament. He was seeking clarification but then-Speaker Tan Soo Khoon told him to sit down and wait for the others to finish. “But I carried on, and he thought this guy was trying to be funny,” he said.

At first Mr Low wondered why the Speaker was so angry and it was only after the session that he realised what had gone wrong.

As if being hard of hearing is not bad enough, Mr Low has problems with his English too. At the last general election, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had questioned if an apology letter written in English for Mr Low’s party candidate, Mr James Gomez, was really written by him.

While MM Lee was accurate in his observation – Mr Gomez had written the letter while Mr Low only edited it — the latter found it nothing to be ashamed of. He even told the press, “Of course, my English is not as good as MM Lee’s. But, his Chinese is definitely not better than mine.”

And Mr Low readily confesses that he got an F9 for English in both his A-Levels and O-Levels. As the last batch of students from the former Nanyang University (Nantah), he belongs to a dying community of Singaporeans educated in the Chinese medium at a time when the country was switching to English as its medium of instruction in schools.

Then Prime Minister Lee had made a speech at Nantah where he labelled it a third-class university as compared to Cambridge, Oxford and then University of Singapore (SU), Mr Low recalls. This was why in 1980, during Mr Low’s final examinations, it was announced that the National University of Singapore would form by merging Nantah with SU.

“They call it a merger, but to me it’s a closing down of Nantah,” he is quick to correct.

The young Mr Low was outraged with the decision, and so were many of the other students. Together with some friends, they put up protest posters around the island, wrote letters to the press and even snagged an interview with a journalist from a Chinese paper.

“Amazingly, nothing came out… the whole public opinion was so one-sided,” he boomed. For the first time, Mr Low saw how public opinion in Singapore could be engineered to favour those in power, “I asked myself as a citizen of Singapore, if there is something which I feel that is unjust, something that is not right, probably people will not know because if press don’t report, who knows?”

The Final Straw

Mr Low grew up in a family of five and his sisters brought him up after their parents passed away when he was only in secondary school. As a student in Chung Cheng (Main) he almost got expelled for disciplinary problems.

Fortunately, his principal was merciful and Mr Low eventually enrolled in Nantah, majoring in both Chinese Language and Literature and Government and Political Administration.

It was his interest in the latter and the desire to read Western political thinkers like Plato and Max Weber that spurred Mr Low to brush up his English in university. But by the time he was to pursue honours in the newly opened NUS, he was still not confident enough in his English.

Thus, the political science department’s warning that theses would be marked down for poor English coupled with the discrimination he felt from the department towards the Chinese-educated pushed him to do his honours in Chinese Studies instead.

After graduation, he became a Chinese-language teacher at Pei Dao Secondary where he encountered the final straw that led him into politics. “To face a student everyday, knowing they are not slow learners but they will not make it because of the system, I can’t tell the student that,” he said.

Seeing his normal stream students demoralised by the system frustrated the young teacher. “Are they slow learners? Today, after so many years, I am proven right because many of them are very successful.” he said.

But Mr Low could not wait to be vindicated and quit teaching after only two years. By then, the contracting business he started while teaching had taken off and he was already a member of the WP led by the late Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam. One of the earliest things he did was to push the party to make streaming an issue in the 1984 elections.

Today, that education system that finally drove Mr Low to join the WP in 1982 has changed for the better. “Of course, the ruling government will never admit that this is from pressure from the ground, from the opposition… you can’t claim credit, but it’s ok, at least you can see some changes.”

And it is seeing his efforts improve the lives for Singaporeans that keeps him going after over 20 years in politics.

Apathy is not an Issue

While he has not thought of his retirement plans, party renewal is not far away from the party chief’s mind, “I will have to give up one day, will there be people who will move the party forward or that’s the end?”

Mr Low’s biggest concern is that the party still does not have enough people — quantity and quality — to form an alternative government today and he admits that to join opposition politics takes a certain breed of people who are willing to toil away.

But he is quick to rubbish the myth that it is dangerous to be associated with opposition politics, “Not true what, my life has never been difficult, whether in business or in life. People use it as an excuse.”

He recalls that he joined WP while still a teacher and his vice-principal used to keep newspaper cuttings of him and his colleagues speculated when he would be sacked. “To me, I deliver, I do my job… what is there reason for you to sack me?” he said.

The apathy of the youth towards politics does not worry the father of three either. He keeps an open mind on the issue as he thinks the youth have diverse interests and it may simply not be the right time for them to be interested anyway. For those who want to take up politics, his advice is to join a party with “eyes open”, understand the party and its objectives and be prepared for any possible outcome.

Now or Never

Mr Low himself had much to deliberate before he joined the WP. His children were young and many like him would have waited a little longer. Moreover, it was a time of uncertainty for opposition politicians as people were arrested under the Internal Security Act.

But for Mr Low, it was a case of now or never, and he candidly told his wife before joining the party, “One day I might have to go to jail.”

But he never did.

After losing his maiden elections in Tiong Bahru GRC in 1988, Low won the single-seat ward in Hougang in 1991 and has not looked back. In the last elections in 2006, he even won with his biggest margin ever.

A big factor of his success lies in Mr Low’s style of politics that has earned him praise even from the ruling People’s Action Party as the kind of opposition acceptable to them.

Perhaps, one of the three calligraphy piece that adorns his office wall best describes the Buddhist’s approach to politics. Inspired by the Chan Zong teaching, it loosely translates to read that no matter what happens in the surroundings, one should not be distracted and stay calm inside.

Such a Zen-like approach differs sharply from his predecessor, Jeyaretnam’s fiery-brand of politics. Mr Low is terse when speaking about the man whom he took over as WP’s Secretary-General in 2001 in less than amicable terms.

Mr Jeyaretnam had then accused the WP and Mr Low for not helping him out with his debts incurred from the defamation suits he had to face from the PAP leaders.

What Mr Jeyaretnam went through showed Mr Low the political traps that he had to avoid to survive. And as if to distance himself from the man, he adds, “Being a leader to me is about responsibility, when the party entangles, you demoralise everybody, you also discourage people who may be interested.”

For critics who say the WP is not aggressive enough and too similar to the PAP, he assures them that the party is confident of its approach and why they are doing it.

The WP acts as a check on the government to make it accountable and provides Singaporeans with a choice to make sure the democracy here work, says Mr Low.

This is especially important when the government here often makes decisions with little consultation, and this was the biggest problem he saw when he entered politics.

“There is no compromise, even though people feel it is not in interest of the nation, but you can’t say anything, who is going to hear you? Not even the news. So best way is to get into politics, so that when I ask question in Parliament, you have to answer, and you better answer!” he said.

Since his days at Nantah, he remains sceptical of the local press and is selective to the journalists he speaks to. When Mr Low first got elected he told the press an important reason why he won was because he was never interviewed by them. He thinks that journalists need to have a sense of mission and has met only a few who dare to push the boundaries.

Mr Low sees himself as the voice of the voiceless and despite his plain, and at times broken English, one hears a man who wants to speak up against the injustices in the Singapore system. “I was born here, this is my country. If I think there is wrong, I will fight,” he said, thumping the table to bring the point home.

At the height of the debate over Section 377A of the Penal Code, Member of Parliament (MP) Baey Yam Keng spoke up against the law banning homosexual sex. If Parliament took a vote on the issue, he would vote to repeal it, Mr Baey said at a forum on the legislation held in the middle of 2007.

While he drew loud applause at the forum for his comments, Mr Baey received negative feedback from members of the public subsequently. A letter was even published in the Straits Times Forum, admonishing him for reflecting his own view instead of the majority.

“Someone wrote in an online forum that as a MP representing the people, I should represent the majority view,” the MP for Tanjong Pagar Group Representative Constituency said.

“I beg to differ. There can only be one view in the majority and we shouldn’t just have that view reflected in parliament, we need some debate and hear different viewpoints.”

Mr Baey is not one who shies away from speaking his mind. In his maiden Parliament speech, he spoke on the widespread anti-establishment sentiments on the Internet and noted that the traditional media did not reflect this.

He then suggested amending media laws to allow greater media freedom, noting that the government should not and cannot be responsible for what people read.

He feels that traditional media and the Internet should converge and not represent such starkly different viewpoints. Although it may seem like opinions in both media balance each other out, Mr Baey pointed out that both mediums attract very different audiences that may then respectively form skewed opinions.

So far, there has been no pressure from within the People’s Action Party (PAP) to stop him from expressing his views, he said.

“I have only received positive comments on my maiden speech. This reinforces my belief that the party is serious in listening to diversified views.”

That is not to say the first-term MP is free from disapproval. Along with the Post-65 MPs (MPs born after Singapore’s independence), Mr Baey was panned for his hip-hop performance at the 2007 Chingay.

Mr Baey also drew the ire of netizens when he was reported in the Straits Times as heading a team of PAP members to rebut anti-establishment views on the Internet.

When this was brought up during the interview, Mr Baey was unfazed and answered the various criticisms. For starters, the Straits Times report was not entirely accurate, Mr Baey said.

“It gave the impression there was an army of party members out there ready to correct views,” Mr Baey said. “It was more of encouraging party members to go online to express their views, and not to rebut everything they see.”

The Post-65 MPs initially tried to harness the power of the Internet by setting up a blog shortly after they were elected, but these days Mr Baey is not so active in blogging anymore. Indeed, the blog has seen better days. When it was first started, all 12 of the MPs posted entries avidly. These days, the blog seems to be updated by only Dr Lam Pin Min, with sporadic entries from Mr Baey and other MPs.

Still, Mr Baey does not view the decrease in enthusiasm from his colleagues as a sign of failure for the blog as it was meant to be an organic experiment.

“When we first started the blog, we just wanted to try it out and let nature take its course,” he said. “Everyone has his comfort level with regard to using it as a platform.”

Mr Baey also discovered how time consuming blogging was. “It takes a lot of energy to respond to all the comments and most of them are very anti-establishment and very fixated in their own views.”

“But if I don’t respond, I feel I don’t do justice to the platform. But these days it really takes up too much time.”

Nowadays, Mr Baey mainly posts up his monthly Chinese column he writes for Lianhe Wanbao, a Chinese tabloid, and provides an English summary of the main points he touches on.

Effectively bilingual, Mr Baey pens his own Chinese speeches. He also writes both the English and Chinese versions of the MP’s address in the Queenstown newsletter. His staff translates the Malay and Tamil versions.

At home, the father of three converses with his family in Mandarin. Though his formal education in the language ended when he was 16, Mr Baey’s close-knit circle of friends keeps his Chinese ability sharp.

These friends go way back to Mr Baey’s days in Hwa Chong Junior College. They were all involved in the Chinese Society, the drama CCA known for putting up “An Evening of Drama”, a yearly drama performance.

His upbringing in the arts is perhaps why he is so willing to speak his mind, or as he put it himself, to touch the boundaries. Prior to becoming a MP, his job at the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts was to help promote the creative industry.

“People in the arts like freedom and don’t like to be caged up,” Mr Baey said.

Until recently, Mr Baey was still actively involved in theatre. He produced two plays after becoming a MP but his work at the ETCeteras, a drama company formed by his friends from Hwa Chong, has since taken a backseat to his job in the private sector and public duties.

Life as a MP can be taxing. Meet the People sessions on Friday start at 7.30pm and typically end after midnight. Tuesdays evenings are spent visiting the homes of constituents in Queenstown. Usually there is only enough time to cover one or two blocks of flats, said Mr Baey’s constituency manager, Mr Ang Tien Chuan.

Add to that a myriad of constituency activities MPs attend as guests-of-honour, and the week’s schedule gets filled up pretty quickly.

Just two and a half years into the job, Mr Baey has clearly made the role of MP for Queenstown his own. He is knowledgeable about the neighbourhood (he immediately pointed out my block was undergoing the lift upgrading project when I first introduced myself as a Queenstown resident and told him where I lived) and has started his own initiatives.

Just a few months after his first parliament session, he began a meeting every two months with residents for informal dialogue. The meetings are held at Queenstown Community Library.

Despite being a rookie in politics, Mr Baey already exudes the mannerisms of a seasoned politician. As a resident raised a question on the government’s move to guarantee bank deposits, Mr Baey looked him directly in the eye, nodded periodically and communicated through his body language: “Yes, you have my full attention.”

Two and a half hours later—the session ran half an hour over time as people weighed in on the transport fare hikes—the session drew to a close and everyone adjourned to the refreshments catered. Over coffee, Mr Baey stayed to chat with lingering residents and members of his staff. Some points brought up during the session were rehashed and residents took the opportunity to bring up specific grievances to him.

Then, it was time for Mr Baey to go. A few handshakes later and he was out the door. The MP had another constituency event to attend to hours later.

When Mr Donald Koh, then president of NUS Students’ Union, was negotiating for change in the satisfactory/unsatisfactory option with the administration last September, the issue of fairness was a recurring one.

Last August the NUS registrar’s office changed its policy to allow students to exercise the option only after their examination results are known.

But because only freshmen and future NUS students were given this new deal initially, Mr Koh led the union to negotiate successfully for all existing students to use the option in a similar fashion.

“We wanted to allow all students to experience the new S/U,” said the 28-year-old.

But this one-year-old policy has made an impact beyond the confines of NUS.

Calls for change at NTU

Following its implementation in NUS, students from NTU have called for a similar system to be implemented, according to a poll by the NTU Students’ Union in April this year.

The S/U option lets students declare a small number of courses to be excluded from the computation of their grade point average (GPA).

Both universities had introduced the option as a way to encourage students to explore areas outside their major without adversely affecting their GPA, but this guiding principle has led to different policies enacted in the two universities.

Although the NTU union had proposed to the administration to adopt a system similar to NUS after some 70% of students voted to exercise their S/U option after knowing their results, the administration has decided otherwise.

This is because the purpose of the option was to encourage students to broaden the kind of courses they take; it was never meant for pulling up the Grade Point Average (GPA), said the divisional director of NTU’s office of academic services (OAS), Mr Lau Kim Yang.

The office wrote on its website on September 24: “Allowing students to change their grading option after the results were known would distort the students’ GPA.

“This would be against the overall education philosophy.”

Same concerns, different approach

But the same consideration of exploring modules beyond a student’s specialisation was also the driving force for NUS to allow its students to exercise the S/U option after the release of examination results.

The NUS union explained in an email to all students the rationale of having S/U after the release of examination results.

“The objective of the S/U options is to encourage you to pursue courses of your interest, which may not be your forte, without the worry that it may adversely affect your CAP (Cumulative Average Point) score,” the email read.

“The new policy of allowing you to S/U after viewing of results is aimed at further reducing your risk and reassuring you that pursuing your interests will not compromise your results.”

With fairness being the central theme of negotiations between the NUS administration and its students’ union, the university decided to allow a one-off chance for all senior students to view the grades of subjects they had previously declared S/U.

They were then allowed to retract the S/U decision if they wished to do so, in the hope to “level the playing field for everyone”, the email announcement of the new S/U option read.

But NUS stopped short of allowing these students to declare a subject S/U that they had previously not, explaining that “the S/U option is designed for an educational purpose and not as a way to erase a poor grade”.

An issue of motivation

At NTU, Mr Lau added that his office had taken student feedback into account and pushed back the deadline for declaring a subject S/U by three weeks—from week eight to week 11.

Although the extension was supported by students such as final-year business student Lim Weijian, Mr Lim still believes that allowing students to exercise the option after knowing their results would motivate them to “give it their best shot till the very last minute.”

“If a student exercises his S/U option before exams, he won’t be as motivated to study as the grade doesn’t count to his GPA,” he said.

With the revised option at NUS, declaring a subject S/U no longer means effectively giving up on the subject halfway through the semester, the former NUS union president Mr Koh said.

This is because only a grade of “C” is required to obtain the “Satisfactory” grade, which earns students the academic units for the course.

But Mr Lau of NTU said the amount of effort put into a subject should not be affected by the use of the S/U option.

His view was shared by Associate Professor Ho Khai Leong from the NTU School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Professor Ho said although there is an S/U option as a “safety net”, students should choose electives that they are interested in and “put their whole heart to it”.

Citing how he used to sit in for lectures outside his syllabus for pure interest, he said: “What I learnt from these classes still stay with me. It is this kind of learning spirit the university should encourage.”

An issue of credibility

Officials at NTU are also concerned about protecting the credibility of the degrees issued by the university.

The NTU office of academic service wrote on their website: “Top universities around the world with an S/U or similar arrangement also required their students to declare their options before the examinations.”

Allowing students to declare their options after their results are known “might affect the credibility of the degrees issued by the University.”

A check by the Enquirer on similar systems implemented in the top 15 universities on the World University Rankings 2008 revealed that the new S/U policy in NUS is unique and the most liberal among top universities in the world, followed closely by Columbia University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

At the same time when NUS had changed it S/U policy last year, the 10th ranked Columbia University started allowing students from its school of general studies to “uncover” a grade of Pass, or turn it back into a letter grade if they choose to do so after viewing their results.

At Columbia, the equivalent of the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option is the Pass/D/Fail option.

But unlike the S/U option in NUS and NTU, there is no “Unsatisfactory” grade. A grade of “D” or “Failure” is recorded onto students’ transcript and computed in the GPA, while a grade of “Pass” is recorded as it is and does not affect the GPA.

Seven out of 11 of the top universities that uses the GPA system has a similar system that penalises students for scoring a “D” or “F” even in courses where the equivalent of the S/U option has been exercised.

However, Columbia is the first to allow its students to uncover the grade of “Pass” in the following semester after the results are known.

But compared with NUS, Columbia students must still exercise the Pass/D/Fail option by the 10th week of the semester to be able to benefit from the option.

In contrast, students from NUS can choose which subjects they want to exercise their S/U option on after all their results for the semester are known.

In MIT, sophomores may opt to take one subject, even a requirement, per semester as “Exploratory”. Doing so allows them to drop the subject, thereby forfeiting the credits earned, in the next semester after knowing their grade.

The option, only made permanent by the faculty in 2008, was meant to ease the transition into the sophomore year by creating a flexible grading option and to encourage sophomores to consider unconventional majors at the start of their second year.

When asked if the credibility of NUS’s degree would be affected because their students can now exercise the S/U option after knowing their examination results, Mr Lau declined to comment.

“I wouldn’t want to speak on their behalf. It’s up to future employers and graduate schools to decide.”

Additional reporting by Cheong Kah Shin and Lin Junjie

A month into the job, the newly elected Students’ Union president shares her vision and aspirations for the students and the university in an interview with the Enquirer.

The first Students’ Union Council Meeting in late August was a time for leadership renewal and union representatives to rally for executive committee positions in the Students’ Union.

As presidential-nominee Ng Hwei Yun gave her rally speech in front of student leaders—some seeing her only for the first time—tears welled up in her eyes.

“I started tearing when I talked about how touched I felt by the encouragement and support of my friends and the 17th Students’ Union Executive Committee,” the English Literature major said.

“It was nerve-racking trying to impress all the council members to vote me in as president.”

But things have calmed down since the tense days of the election. The 21-year-old was far less emotional—exuberant and bubbly in fact—throughout the interview with the Enquirer.

Despite being the union president, Ms Ng is not unlike the 20,000 students she represents in NTU.

She loves watching reality television shows like the Amazing Race, Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model.

When it comes to school work and her classes, she enjoys reading the works of Jack Kerouac and Geoffrey Chaucer, describing The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer as “a crazy modern day road trip with friends.”

Friends described the president as a cheerful person.

“She is very bubbly and has this contagious laughter,” said third-year English Literature major Ms Shaun Low, who takes the module “Literature and Madness” with Ms Ng.

Ms Ng often breaks into this same laughter and a wide smile in recounting her involvement in union activities for the past two years.

“I just feel that I’m quite an average person,” said the second female president in the union’s history.

A recent straw poll of 100 students conducted by the Enquirer showed that NTU students cannot name the new union president.

When informed of the poll results, she appeared shocked, but recovered with a short giggle and replied in a formal manner. She said students need not know her name as long as the union has played the important role of representing the student body.

“After all, it’s not so much about me, it’s more about the Students’ Union as a whole,” the third-year English Literature student said.

Involvement in the Students’ Union

Ms Ng’s journey in the union all began when her sister, Ms Denyse Ng, one of the assistant group leaders, persuaded her to participate in the union orientation camp. There, she met friends who would later work with her on events in her freshman year.

She then took on the roles of the union’s welfare festival business manager and business director before being stepping up as orientation executive in her second year.

“I’m not naturally ambitious so I didn’t really think of joining [the union executive committee],” the president said.

But the idea of interacting with freshmen and giving them a good first impression of NTU enticed her to take up the orientation portfolio.

She spoke fondly of the hard work involved in organising the camp, such as getting her hands dirty with programming and logistics.

Though this left her drained from the demands of union work, Ms Ng said she ran for president as she understood the need to continue serving the students and giving something back that will benefit them.

“I have never gone up to this level before,” she said. “I have never been the president of such a big organisation with power to implement more changes or to listen to the students.”

Encouraged by the support of her peers and the previous executive committee, she decided to take up the role of president.

Her views as president

Throughout her interview with the Enquirer, Ms Ng was candid about some of the challenges that the current executive committee faces.

These included issues like the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) option, the Hall Allocation Scheme and the triple sharing proposal (see below).

The S/U option was implemented by the university in August 2005 for students under the Grade Point Average (GPA) system. This option lets students declare a small number of courses to be excluded from the computation of their GPA.

It was meant to encourage students to explore areas outside their major, in line with the university’s aim to provide an all-rounded undergraduate programme.

However students need to exercise this option during the semester, before the examination grade is known.

The S/U issue arose after the National University of Singapore changed its policy in October last year to allow students to exercise the option after the release of their examination results.

In a survey conducted by the NTU Students’ Union in April this year, nearly 70% of students voted to exercise their S/U option after knowing their examinations results.

When the union approached the Office of Academic Services (OAS) and Senior Associate Provost Er Meng Hwa with the survey results, the union was told that such a change would compromise the quality of NTU’s degrees.

Ms Ng agrees with this explanation and would like to point out that OAS did take up the feedback of students needing more time to decide on their S/U option.

As a result, students can make their S/U declaration up to week 11 this semester. Previously, students need to do so by week 8, just a week after the semester break.

However, Ms Ng said that her committee will continue to review the current system, gather feedback and reflect students’ sentiments to the relevant school authorities.

When referring to her current committee, she emphasised the word “team” several times. She understands the strength of a combined team effort and the fact that she cannot achieve anything on her own.

“I am expecting them to be alert, efficient and always up-to-date with what is happening around campus,” said Ms Ng who described her leadership style as casual yet making sure that the work gets done.

Ms Ng also responded to the poll and how 36% of students feel that the union cannot bring about the changes they want. She clarified that the union does not govern everything that happens on campus but will “guard the general welfare and interest of the students.”

However, if there is an issue that students have, she said the union will do what they can to voice out to the relevant authorities.

She also hopes that students will be a bit more forgiving and understanding in their efforts to improve and serve the community.

“We may be the leader among our peers, but we hope to be accepted by them even if we fail.

“We are still average students, with the same work assignments that other students have,” the president said. “We see this as a form of responsibility to try and do more for the community that we are living in and I hope students are able to appreciate that.”

How others view her as president

The former union president Mr Choudhury Anshuman Das, 22, advised Ms Ng to pay greater attention when handling student policy and university negotiation. He said she should understand and tackle each policy with care.

“Do your homework before negotiating with the university administration,” said Mr Das, a final-year student in the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.

This is due to Ms Ng’s lack of experience in this aspect as her experience comes mainly from events management, he says.

Still, vice-president for internal affairs, Samuel Chee, felt that as long as Ms Ng is aware of what has happened in the union in the past year, she should be able to handle the job as the president.

“She is dynamic, hands on and likes to be involved,” the final-year Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student said. “But the downside is she will sacrifice her own personal time eventually.”

As for the moment his successor shed tears on stage, Mr Das was moved by Ms Ng’s sincerity in serving the university.

“In answering a question from the floor, she cried as it [taking on the role of president] was an overwhelming experience for her.”