V6i4 by The Octant

FRIDAY MARCH 10, 2017

VOL. 6, ISSUE 4

NEWS

Public Affairs, Brand Guardian of Yale-NUS College?

OPINION

Explaining Liberal Arts To A Singaporean

YALE-NUS, SINGAPORE

FEATURES

Behind The Scenes: Organizing Controversial Events at Yale-NUS

PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BRAND GUARDIAN OF YALE-NUS COLLEGE?

Unapproved tank tops lie in waste, unable to contribute to the brnading of the College.

story | Elaine Li, News Editor photo | Justin Ong

ale-NUS Public Affairs (PA) works with student organizations to reinforce the College’s identity guidelines in school merchandise production. With various student organizations involved in designing school merchandise, tensions have arisen in the role PA plays in this process. These tensions further raise the question of how much autonomy students should have in the branding of our school. According to Alyson Rozells, Senior Manager of PA, “all registered student organizations that wish to use the College wordmark in their collateral should approach PA to gain access to the relevant resources and guidelines.” Further, PA is in charge of ensuring that student organizations adhere to the College’s identity guidelines in the creation of collateral for their groups. The Yale-NUS Student Bookstore’s production process is managed by four departments: finance, marketing, production and sales. The development stage includes surveying student interest and designing, which is usually done internally. The product information is then passed to the production team, who liaise with producers and negotiate cost. If the cost is feasible, the production quantities are tallied and the final product design is passed over to PA for approval. However, the insufficient communication regarding the process of PA approval

has caused issues for the bookstore in the process of designing school sports tank tops, according to Brian Bohme ’19, the Director of Marketing and Communications of the Bookstore. After spending $1500 on 100 sports tanks to be ready for production before the beginning of last semester, the Bookstore learned that PA could not approve the “YNC” on the sports tanks, and as a result they could not sell the sport tank tops. “Our tanks are still sitting in the storage now,” said an anonymous source from the Bookstore. Further, members of the bookstore report PA’s inaccessibility as a hindrance to their production process. PA formed an agreement with the Bookstore to respond within three working days to designs they sent over for PA’s approval. “But [at the] end of last semester, when we were working on ironon patches, they took more than three weeks to reply to our request,” and only did so when they requested to loan class shirts for a photoshoot through a Facebook message group, according to an anonymous source from the Bookstore. This semester PA approached the Bookstore to offer them the opportunity to produce school mascot plushies for senior graduation. However, on their current budget the Bookstore found it difficult to adhere to design and quality guidelines laid out by PA. According to an anonymous source from the Bookstore it took PA three weeks to respond to their request to source for alternative funding. “This time they just said that they will be handling the productions without us anymore,” the source said. Public Affairs declined to respond to a follow-up interview. 1

NEWS | FEATURES

Members of the Freshman Orientation Committee for the Class of 2020 similarly experienced difficulty in adhering to PA’s identity guidelines in the design and production of orientation shirts. According to Ignacius Tay ’19, although both the Dean of Students Office and PA made clear the need to gain PA’s approval before producing the shirts, the specific guidelines were only communicated after the meeting with PA. As a result, a number of changes had to be made to the original design. “Our original design included the kingfisher, but it was rejected because the official mascot design hadn't been approved yet,” Tay said. Further, the original colors were rejected “because the colors needed to be our RC colors,” Tay said. Although PA provided color codes for each official residential college color, the Orientation Committee encountered difficulty in finding producers who were able to produce shirts of the designated colors. This slowed down the t-shirt production process.

Tandem Designs, a group of student artists also selling YaleNUS College collateral that does not bear the College’s official wordmark, encountered no resistance from Public Affairs in their production process. “We're grateful to the administration for their support in helping Tandem grow. PA has been supportive of our endeavors from the very beginning, engaging our designers for projects as well,” said Min Lim ’18, co-founder of Tandem Designs. On the subject of who should be the brand guardian for the College, Bohme said that while he considers an “executive figure like PA [that] consolidates and moderates the decisions being made” important, students should have a bigger say. “There should be a symbiotic relationship between the two, rather than one deciding force,” he said. Should this relationship continue to be one sided, the unapproved tank tops would only be the start of the challenges in the branding of the College’s identity.

BEHIND THE SCENES: ORGANIZING CONTROVERSIAL EVENTS AT YALE-NUS

story | Minsoo Bae, Staff Writer photo | Lucy Kuo

n early February, Yale-NUS College hosted a Skype conversation with Joshua Wong and the screening of 1987: Untracing the Conspiracy. These two events took place on the cusp of the college informing student organization leaders of a controversial new events policy. Many students and the Yale-NUS Student Government expressed concern about the policy’s impact on freedom of expression. In particular, students pointed to provisions requiring a licensce under the Public Entertainments and Meetings Act, or a permit under the Public Order Act. The events policy has since been amended in response to students’ feedback. This included the removal of all mentions of the Public Entertainments and Meetings Act and Public Order Act. Dean of Students Christopher Bridges, said that the College stands in full support of free speech and that the event policy “will have no impact on that commitment in any way.”

Still, the ensuing discussion about academic freedom has brought new scrutiny to controversial events on campus and the challenges students face in organizing them. A Skype Conversation with Joshua Wong A Skype conversation with Joshua Wong took place in the Saga Rector’s Common on Feb. 1, 2017. Wong is a student activist from Hong Kong who, as part of his student activist group Scholarism, launched a non-violent protest for universal suffrage in 2014. Coined “The Umbrella Movement”, the protest brought Wong international attention, ranging from the negative (such as being blacklisted from traveling to numerous countries) to the positive (Wong was featured on the cover of Time Magazine). The talk consisted of a presentation explaining the brief political history of Hong Kong followed by a Question & Answer session with the audience. This talk on the Yale-NUS College campus came right after the Community Action Network (CAN) had organiszed a separate Skype discussion with Joshua Wong and other Singaporean activists.

CLOCKWORK | FEATURES

What’s happening on campus?

A Major Decision:

The Class of 2019 will be declaring their majors in the upcoming week. We wish them all the best as they chart out future career paths and weigh them alongside their passions.

Breakfasts at Elm Buttery:

Nobody plans to wake up early on a Saturday. But in case you do, fear not. From March 4 to April 8, breakfast will be served at Elm buttery on Saturday mornings with a different menu each week!

Town Hall: There will be a Town Hall with President Pericles Lewis on Thursday March 9 in the Saga Dining Hall at pm. Learn about the progress made since our last town hall, and voice your concerns. The dining hall will halt food services at 7:45 that night.

Goodbye to All That: The last Senior Workshop will be held March 29 and April 5, with the theme, “How to Say Goodbye”. Channel your inner Bocelli and Brightman before the workshop, because for seniors, the end is fast approaching.

Open Day: Yale NUS Open Day will be held on March 11, where we will welcome the prospective new batch. All we have to do is be helpful in giving directions and pretending the College is perfect.

CAN is a Non-Governmental Organizsation in Singapore concerned with the freedom of expression. However, they were called for investigations by the police on grounds of their not having applied for a permit due to laws in Singapore making it illegal to hold any cause-related activity without proper licensing. In contrast, the Yale-NUS event ran smoothly and with little restraint from the college administration. Shawn Hoo ’20, one of the event’s organizers, said that they “didn’t expect nor meet any reaction from the school.” He said that Public Affairs (PA) appeared more wary of any possible state backlash and preparing the organizers for media reactions just in case. Nevertheless the event went smoothly. One obstacle the organizers did run into was their initial intention to open the event up to the National University of Singapore (NUS). PA denied their request on the grounds that the Saga Rector’s Commons was too small to accommodate NUS students and that there was enough participation from Yale-NUS students alone. This brought up the question of policy of containment and its hindrance to academic freedom. The implications were that this was a privilege given to YaleNUS students, emphasizing again the ideological gap between Yale-NUS and NUS, despite the schools being physically next to each other. Hoo described Yale-NUS as a designated park of academic freedom, in an article in The Octant.

1987: Untracing the Conspiracy Jonas Yun ‘20, the co-organizer of the screening of 1987: Untracing the Conspiracy, depicted a similar picture to Hoo. “Objectively speaking, there was a lot of support that was given,” Yun said. He said that there was a lot of support for the cause from the administration members, and that he had confidence that none of them were trying to obstruct the event. He did, however, run into a problem in confirming the venue. Yun said that PA gave a “positive response” to holding the event in the Tan Chin Tuan (TCT) Lecture Theatre, following the initial sign-up of 130 people. PA soon changed its response, citing a number of reasons. These included the worry that the TCT was “more publicly accessible”, not everyone who signed up would turn up, and the Rector’s Commons would conduce a more intimate and honest environment for conversation. When asked for response, PA commented that “for events such as the Rectors’ Teas, the decisions on the location and event format are made by the Rectors.” Public Affairs said that its office is not in a position to approve or disallow the use of space on campus, and that its main task is to provide advice on publicity and events management if approached. In regard to the second concern of flaky attendees, Yun conducted a second survey in order to produce a list of attendees who were certain in their going to the event. 85 confirmed their attendance. This time, PA responded that because the movie was given the age restriction rating of 21, the movie could not be held in the more public venue of TCT. Yun checked the validity of this claim with the Media Development Authority as well as the activists—who had screened the movie in several venues—and confirmed that this was not true. Following the confusion in confirming the venue, Yun had a conversation with the senior manager of PA. He was promised that the PA is always on the side of the students, and that the members of Public Affairs were not the right people to ask about the feasibility of holding events at certain venues—the Arts and Spaces committee had the knowledge of the legality of such matters. Because PA has to deal with the repercussions of any controversy from the events, it would always make decisions on the safer side. The political events held on the Yale-NUS campus reflect that the college administration has, thus far, upheld its mission to allow academic free speech. In the light of recent events, the campus is rife with discussions regarding the extent of this freedom, with the power balance between administration and students constantly shoved into the limelight. Conversations with the organizers indicate that the problems mainly lie in containing academic freedom to Yale-NUS, and not knowing the appropriate committees for consultations on different issues. “We should establish a formalized channel of communication so it can expand our academic freedom to the max while containing it to reasonable boundaries,” said Yun.

OPINION

EXPLAINING LIBERAL ARTS TO A SINGAPOREAN story | Yip Jia Qi, Opinion Editor photo | Serena Quay "It's not arts? Then...what is it?"

xplaining liberal arts to a Singaporean can sometimes be very frustrating. But as members of the first four classes of YaleNUS, we cannot escape from it. Even as the first batch of seniors graduate this year, there is still a lack of understanding in the wider Singapore population about what we actually do in this school. A conversation about liberal arts is a conversation about education. When we talk about our education after being immersed in it for years, we can sometimes be ambushed by the existing notions some Singaporeans have about what an education is. The conversation below is between a liberal arts student and a generic skeptical Singaporean. It could be a taxi driver on the way to the airport, a pesky relative at a wedding, your ex-classmate at a gathering, or your job interviewer. "What are you doing now uh? Still studying?” “Yeah.” “Where you studying?” “Yale-NUS.” “Ohhh when you flying off?” “No I’m staying in Singapore.” “Huh?” “Its Yale-NUS.” “Huh so NUS?” “No lah, its Yale-NUS, it's a collaboration between Yale and NUS, but we are our own school.” “Wah, so chim. So you study what?” “Liberal arts” “So FASS lah!” *silently judging you for not being a doctor, lawyer, engineer* “...” “No it’s not FASS!” “Then what is it? Study arts what!” “No I can study anything I want. It's a broad based education where I study a bit of everything before deciding on my major, and which includes arts, humanities and natural sciences. For example in the first sem of our compulsory common curriculum we have some Philosophy, literature, Social Science and Science” “Huh so chapalang one ah?” “....Yah, very chapalang” “Then next time what work you do sia?” *judging you even more than they were already judging you* “I don’t know, it depends” “You don’t know then you study for what! Next time cannot find job how?”

“I study because I like to study, not because I want to get a job” *Error messages start appearing in “pragmatism” subroutine and he/she/they does not know what to say. the other person’s Brain hangs and gets BSOD and needs to reboot* “People go uni not find job then do what?” “Get an education” *this is such a radical thought the other person takes three seconds to recover from the shock. More error messages start popping up along with loud warning sirens* “If learn already cannot find job, then learn for what?” “To satisfy my curiosity” *complete system failure* The above scenario, or some variation of it, is way more common than we’d like. Liberal arts is an education philosophy, not a field of study, and this is not just semantics. It's a very important distinction to put forth. We need to ask people to suspend what they think they know about education. Singaporeans are always simultaneously proud that we have a good education system and worried about the amount of stress we place on very young children. I think having the conversation above many times over with as many people as possible is the minimum it will take to improve the education paradigm in Singapore.

EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Dave Chappell Managing Editor Justin Ong Managing Editor Zula Badral Co-News Editor Pham Le Vi Co-News Editor Elaine Li Co-Opinion Editor Aditya Karkera Co-Opinion Editor Yip Jia Qi Co-Features Editor Yip Jie Ying Co-Features Editor Nicholas Lua Co-Arts Editor Neo Huiyuan Co-Arts Editor Terence Anthony Wang Visuals Editor Lucy Kuo DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of The Octant. Questions can be directed to yncoctant@gmail.com