Yale-NUS Closure - Part III.

 

Yale-NUS college is not letting go. 508 members (about 60% of the alumni) have signed a statement “questioning the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) decision to close the college.” 

Minister Chan has told parliament on Sept 13 that money is not the main motivation behind the decision to merge YNC with USP. It was a factor though. YNC costs $90,800 a year for each student. The govt subsidised $70,300 a year. The student pays the rest of it, that is, $20,500 being its tuition fees. 

Yes, a liberal arts education is rather expensive, but “comparable institutions overseas will cost the Singaporean student four times as much.” That was an extract from the alumni statement, and it would be a greater deprivation for students from poor background. “Additionally, those who go overseas may not return, thereby exacerbating the brain drain in Singapore.”

Shanice Stanislaus, who graduated in 2017, said: “They keep saying it’s money or accessibility, but I think it’s more than that. Instead of just coming out and facing these questions, I watched NUS respond in silence or with carefully crafted statements.”

Lesson? I have three in fact, and they start with the letter Y-N-C.

1) Y - yah, WH-Y? This charade has been going for long enough. It’s been one month now (since 27 Aug), and money was initially the main consideration. At least that was the impression I got. 

And then, it got relegated to being one of the factors, as Mr Chan puts it in Parliament, but without any further clarification. I thought Parliamentary debate or discussion was supposed to clear the air. It however left it thick, heavy, and at times, hazy. 

Next comes the assurance of a road map for liberal arts education in the new merger, akin to YNC 2.0. But todate, the alumni questioned why “the institution currently has no website, curriculum and admissions or financial aid policy despite being scheduled to open next year.” 

It is like you are given a 1000-piece puzzle to assemble. The whole alumni then rush to participate in the hope of seeing the full picture. Yet, as they piece it together, after weeks of patience and due diligence, they discover that the puzzle box comes with 500 pieces short. It was not meant to be completed in the first place. You then walk away feeling shortchanged. And I call that the dumbstruck or flabbergasted effect. 

2) N - it stands for “Not On My Watch”. YNC will come to an end in 2025, and 2021 intake will be the last batch. The governing board is making the transition for its new intake next year. It is hoped that those affected (and concerned) will just let it go silently into the night.

But, besides the gobsmacked YNC’s president and 60% of the alumni, recently we have another protest arising, and it comes from a group of faculty members from the college. 

They too released an open letter “disagreeing with the de facto closure of the college.” They broke rank, broke the silence and broke the alabaster flask, releasing the tuberose fragrance of a bold united front, standing together to reject the justification given for the closure. 

It reports, ““they also questioned the school’s ability to ensure a “full Yale-NUS experience” for the remaining cohorts of students, and publicly condemned what they described as a “breach of trust” by decision-makers from the NUS.””

Mind you, the 19-page letter states: “Given the obvious negative outcomes for Yale-NUS College’s many stakeholders, who collectively put their trust in Yale and NUS...and given the many questions that remain unanswered about the rationale, process and timing of the decision, we express our disappointment, sadness and disagreement with the decision to close the Yale-NUS College.”

Breach of trust in a trusted institution is a strong word to use, especially when it is used by those who work within that same institution. And it makes for even more strident protest when one faculty member stood up and hollered - “Show me the money!” 

Well, the more refined construction of that is this: “If the NUS leadership thinks that Yale-NUS college was a declining institution, then show us the metrics because as scholars, we work with evidence.” Ouch.

Now, if YNC is fading into the night, that is, sooner or later, because the powers-that-be has spoken, it is definitely not going quietly into the night. At least the fight at the frontline is this rallying cry - “Not On Our Watch!”

And finally, Y-N...

3) C is for Cost. No, not money. It is a value far beyond that. It is the cost of an education, one involving the liberal arts, an interdisciplinary education to open minds, for all and sundry, regardless of your background, and whether you stay in a landed property or a rented HDB flat. 

It is a universal understanding of the world not just for purposes of a vocation, profession or technical skill. It aims to nurture connoisseurs with an eye for compassion, not technocrats with a measuring tape. It is a desire to understand beyond the utility of a subject that is designed to fit narrowly in the marketplace. 

An education like that serves to broaden the mind, plumb the depth of one’s heart seeking for meaning beyond the economic metric. The benefit of such an education may not be immediately obvious. It may not even produce the results desired by those who impatiently shake the money tree, hoping for the juicy fruit to fall onto one’s lap in an orgasmic spree. 

But, as Peter Ooi, who graduated in 2018, puts it: “the benefits of Yale-NUS might be hard to quantify. But Singapore should not abandon a project just because its outcomes are less tangible, or because it is too impatient to wait for its fruits to ripen.”

Well, that is the cost of a liberal arts education. One that seeks to impart life’s lessons worthy of a free person. One that aims to discipline her down-to-earth pupil to question, challenge, provoke and confront, not to be echo-chamber, but a city on the hill, a guiding light. 

Let me end with the words of abolitionist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson for your evening digest. 

“Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.” 

Good night.

 

Yale-NUS Closure - Part I.

 In a break up, save the children. 

In a nutshell, that’s the theme of Assoc Editor Chua Mui Hong’s article this morning. Good read, balanced read. She addressed the angst, but reminded those who signed the petition that it is the future of the school that they will have to have hope in. Her concluding words are embracing to the heart and soul, and I will flesh it out later. Before that, let’s go for the jugular...

Leading the charge is none other than Yale-NUS College (YNC) President Tan Tai Yong. The break up more than ruffled his feathers. He expressed that he was “gobsmacked and flabbergasted.” Those are strong words. 

As an aside, gobsmack means “utterly astonished” and flabbergasted means “greatly surprised or astonished.” President Tan could even have been aghast, dumbfounded or even speechless, but you get the drift. 

If the decision to close YNC was a top-down reaction, then President Tan’s astonishment was also a top-down reaction. Just that it was a top-down that gave a good down-up suckerpunch on those who think they know better. 

And it also gave the YNC students, past and present, a good seize-the-day-and-gather-ye-rosebud kind of ventilation that they needed to sign on the dotted line demanding for an accounting and awakening. To put it bluntly, one can even see it as woke culture on steroid at campus. 

Anyway, Chua doesn’t mince her words here. From an objective standpoint, and written on official ink, she wrote: “Making a decision to shut a college over the head of its president and governing board smacks of hubris, a disregard for institutional autonomy and a total lack of respect and trust for the individuals involved.” 

She added: “Sadly, from my experience, this is by no means unusual in Singapore.” Ouch...how’s that for a returning-hand gobsmack serve?

Well, if you are into conspiracy theories, it is anyone’s guess why this was done under the student-body radar, even behind the back of the college’s president. Alas, that is the problem when you take matters into your own ironclad-hand and wring it from top-down. It just leaves big gaps for scurrilous speculations to fill. And, can you blame the busy grapevine and wagging tongues? 

Mind you, this is no ordinary institution. It’s the creme-de-la-creme of Southeast Asia, and tops amongst the world. That is, only the best brains are packed into those formidable four-walls that many can only quietly admire from afar. 

But then, we all know that the best brains do not necessarily equate with a good soul when push comes to shove, and I guess there is more than meets the eye here. That is why even YNC president is gobsmacked, utterly astonished.

At this point, let me just say that strict paternalism may be necessary when running the country in a crisis or in a state of genuine emergency, not one that is desperately man-made. 

But during more prosperous times, when a nation is in her grooves of secure development, the leadership must double-down on father-knows-best and double-up on mother-and-child-bonding. Anything less would generate more heat than light, or more suspicion than affection.

As Chua puts it: “...such high-handed decision-making is guaranteed to foment distrust and cynicism, loosen cohesion and drive a wedge between leaders and people. Already, some YNC students are talking about feeling betrayed.”

Here, I recall a phrase from Dead Poets Society that goes like this: “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.” 

That is the marrow-sucking energy of our young this day and age. And an institution of such repute and stature would want to harness that energy, not by a I-know-best stance, but with mutual respect, trust and nurturance.

For we need brain, yes, but we need soul too. More importantly, we need heart, and here is Chua’s heart-felt plea to those aggrieved as I end. Have a great weekend. 

“Your feelings today of hurt, anger, disappointment and betrayal over the decision are valid. Vent them safely with your friends, then set them aside.” 

“Be cool-headed and analytical about what's best about YNC that is worth preserving. Then channel your energy into trying to preserve the best of that spirit and energy in the new NUS college. Remember that disrespecting NUS is disrespecting half your heritage.”

“And deep within you, don't let the flame die. What you feel now is the rage and despair of the powerless in the face of decisions made by those with power that affect you directly. One day, when you become powerful yourself, when you are in positions of authority, remember how it feels like to be powerless and not respected.”

“And then resolve always to do your best to act differently - to make decisions in a different way, that includes not excludes, that shares power not removes it, that respects stakeholders, not treat them as dispensable.”

“Creating such a culture of collaborative leadership would be a good legacy of YNC for Singapore.”