"There's nothing Yale could have done."
The Octant interviews Prof. Charles Bailyn, inaugural Dean of Faculty for Yale-NUS College from 2011 to 2016, on his feelings on the closure of Yale-NUS and what role Yale University has played in this narrative.
Existing commentators have explored the possible underlying dynamics, highlighted potential issues, and suggested next steps to make the best of the YNC closure and establishment of NC. Yi Ming Ng, ’21, and Rohan Naidu, ’17 step back and ask if the move is justified.
In many Asian societies, tattoos are still considered taboo, and because school is a place of learning and influence, tattoos—associated with gangsters, drug use and “bad company” in general—are frowned upon. Understanding more about people’s relationships with their tattoos, once considered a sign of a criminal or a deviant, is thus fascinating.
Dance workshops in Lebanese refugee camps and design thinking in Singaporean rental flats: CIPE’s Social Impact Fellowship allows Yale-NUS students to make change all around the world. Yihui gives us an introduction to some of them.
Canceled plans and uncomfortable crematorium visits: horror junkie Isabelle shares how the real spirit she saw on the Ghostly Singapore Week 7 LAB was the ghost of experiential learning.
The recent Singapore Climate Rally garnered a lot of attention in the press and on social media – but what are the actual policy changes the Rally called for? Dion reports.
Many international students in the Class of 2023 have experienced trouble with their Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) bank accounts. Raphael reports.
“I want to encourage our community to remember the Wall as more than a contested space filled with hostile language among members of the Greater China region. It is a civic education project that never got to realize its full potential at and beyond Yale-NUS.” Winnie tells us more.
“Several days earlier, I had a conversation with an alumnus from the then University of Singapore about student activism in Singapore in the 1970s…Had the vibrant culture of student activism not been annihilated in the preceding decades, we would never have needed such a course.”
After Monica Baey’s experience as a survivor of sexual violence went viral, public attention has focused on the appropriate penalties that her perpetrator should receive. Daryl and Alysha discuss why we should consider more pluralistic, rather than punitive, forms of justice for survivors of sexual violence.
With students from the Normal stream being underrepresented in the Yale-NUS student population, how is the recent news on structural reforms in Singapore’s mainstream education system relevant to us? Paul reflects on his time in neighborhood secondary schools as both a student and an educator and the implications that this policy change could have on the school he is about to leave.
The Common Curriculum spans cultures and continents, but fails to include important texts from Singapore’s own indigenous culture. Faris makes a case for examining our position in the Malay world.
250 students. 14 hotly-contested destinations. One Week 7. What did they “learn across boundaries”? Kimberly, Wisha, Rhyhan, Aryan, Jun Jie, Michelle and Fatima write about their experiences.
Every year, more than 200 students join Yale-NUS, of which around 40% or more do not come from Singapore. Bilge chats with three students on their ideas of home and being away from home.
Should 377A be repealed or should it remain? A month after India’s landmark ruling to decriminalise sex between consenting males, The Octant asks students if Singapore can, or should, follow suit.
story | Meghna Basu, Guest Writer
photo | Meghna Basu
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On a windy evening in January 2016, a group of unlike-minded individuals gathered atop Prospect Hill,...
